This week Matt Cutts released a video outlining the plans for changes to the Google algorithm that may affect SEO in the next few months. Some of the major points of the video are:

• Penguin 2.0 will be released soon that has better analytical capabilities for websites to more easily detect websam.
• Paid links for advertorials and other advertising opportunities wil be okay to use so long as they are clearly designated as being paid for and do not pass pagerank.
• A more sophisticated linkn analysis function is in the making that will mke it easier for Google to identify and eliminate link spammers.
• Hacked sites will have more opportunity to bounce back from an attack with more extensive help for webmasters and better overall communication from Google.
• Google Panda will be tweaked to allow sites that may have been hit hard in 2012 to bounce back some from any penalties they have received.
• Google is developing new ways to eliminate host crowding in SERPs so that only one result per domain will appear in the results for a search query.

More Link Networks Targeted by Google

This week many webmasters saw a significant drop in traffic on Wednesday May 15^th from blog/link networks. Google has been systematically targeting these link networks over the past couple of months and there will be more to come.

Google is cracking down on “unnatural” links across the Internet to eliminate the effectiveness of many link building campaigns. What constitutes a “natural” link is becoming more strictly defined as the Google algorithm becomes more sophisticated.

Some webmasters have noticed that the rich snippets on their sites have been hacked or placed by an unauthorized party. The rich snippets go a long way in identifying the pages for search engines.

The people who have noticed the hacks say that third parties are placing links to their websites within the rich snippet code of your website. The third parties that have been noticed are mostly porn sites.

Bing Malware Re-evaluation Tool

Bing has added a new tool for webmasters to do a re-evaluation of malware. The Bing tool has been expanded to give webmasters more information about the malware detected on their site and an opportunity to request a re-evaluation.

New Google App for iOS

Google has released its Google Now app for iOS users so it is available on iPhone and iPad. With the new app addition, Google is trying to appeal to more mobile devices users – not just Androids. Google Now is a search app that allows users to connect directly to a search window when they open it.

Google announced a new look for the Google+ for business dashboard early in the month. The new interface will have an app-like feel that will be easier to edit and interact with. The new update features will also allow any changes you make to your business listing go live faster.

With the new dashboard there have been problems managing international business. Google will only allow users to manage the business pages of businesses in their own country. Google is working on fixing the issue but recommends using a Google account that has exclusively accessed Google tools via that country’s IPs in the meantime.

New iOS App for Google Listings

Google has released a new app for iOS to make it easier to manage your business listings from an iPhone or iPad. The app is supposed to simplify business listing management, but in fact it complicates things even more.

Having yet another way to manage your listing could cause problems with business owners. With so many different ways to access a listing, it wil be easier to make mistakes while editing a business page.

Facebook Home Android App

Facebook announced its newest app for the Android OS that was released on April 12^th. The app will be an amendment to the OS so that Facebook is the primary interface for whatever mobile device is being used.

The new app was downloaded more than half a million times in the few weeks since its release. Though many users love the it, there is an issue with the app draining the battery life of mobile devices. Some user reviews also complained about the difficulty accessing non-Facebook applications on their phones.

Bing Introduces Pin to Pinterest

Bing has released a new feature within its image search results called Pin to Pinterest. The images will all have the notable Pinterest con so users who are logged in to their account can immediately pin it to their wall.

As Bing continues to compete with Google it is important for them to be creative and innovative. With this new image search Pinterest feature they are giving users a reason to choose Bing over Google.

Google Offers Users a Death Clause

Google Users can now specify what should be done with their Google assets in the event of their death. If you have any assets with Google you can determine what will be done with your account after you’ve become inactive for a certain period of time.

The options include notifications to contacts and the deletion of your online persona. This new Google feature is a testament to how we are living in a digital age where our possessions now include things within the intangible world of the internet.

Add Your Content Gradually

Matt Cutts recently released a video stating that websites should be cautious when introducing a large number of pages to avoid looking suspicious. He said that the best way to add content is gradually over time instead of all at once.

Gradually adding content to your website will help to avoid looking “spammy” to search engines and causing them to investigate your website more closely.

Mobile Search Sub Site Links for Google Users

Now mobile searchers will be able to navigate to popular pages of a website with the sub-site links offered from Google. Desktop searches have had this feature for some time, but now the mobile version of Google offers these links as well.

Matt Cutts stated in a video this week that adding a large number of page to your website all at once may not be a good idea. If the number of pages on your website increases suddenly it will alert search engines to investigate your site for spam.

If your content is legitimate then it won’t matter either way but it is better to add pages gradually so it will look more natural.

Bing Testing Limited Results

Bing has been testing a new results page that only has 5 websites returned on the first page of a query. Bing has been trying different result pages to see how users respond to different SERPs as a way to compete with Google.

Google Introduces Sub Site Links for Mobile Search

A Google search from a mobile device will now offer sub site links to users just as they would appear in a search on a desktop. The new mobile feature gives users the opportunity to go directly to the page they ant to on a website instead of having to navigate to the home page first.

Rumors have been circulating about a possible Google update. And although there is no confirmation of an update, the number of people speaking about the possibility makes it difficult to deny.

The changes happening may be a result of Panda moving into auto pilot or they may be a result of a new update all together.

Bing Introduces Pin to Pinterest

Bing has released a new feature within its image search results called Pin to Pinterest. The images will all have the notable Pinterest con so users who are logged in to their account can immediately pin it to their wall.

As Bing continues to compete with Google it is important for them to be creative and innovative. With this new image search Pinterest feature they are giving users a reason to choose Bing over Google.

Google Offers Users a Death Clause

Google Users can now specify what should be done with their Google assets in the event of their death. If you have any assets with Google you can determine what will be done with your account after you’ve become inactive for a certain period of time.

The options include notifications to contacts and the deletion of your online persona. This new Google feature is a testament to how we are living in a digital age where our possessions now include things within the intangible world of the internet.

1. The New Dashboard is Only Available to New or Newly Verified Profiles

If you haven’t noticed anything different about your Google Places Dashboard, its because the new dashboard is currently only available for new or newly verified profiles.  You may only see the new dashboard if you verify or create an account.

2. Verification Process

Google has kept much of the verification process the same, but have added a couple of helpful tweaks. First and foremost, when you verify your listing through the phone, you will now be greeted by a display message that shows you the status of the call. Once you put in the request, It displays message letting you know that they are currently calling the business phone number. When the call is completed, you receive another notification letting you know the call is over. This is a great addition to the verification process, and will let you know when your client has received their verification number.

Google has also changed the administrative access to the Google Places Pages. Now you are only allowed to have one user that claims access to the Google Places Page. If a listing has already been verified, you will receive this message.

Image Courtesy of Mike Blumenthal

This change solves the problem of having multiple people editing a Google Places profile, but may also make getting access to the profile a bit more difficult.

3. Faster Content Updating

The new dashboard promises much faster content updating on your Google Places page. With the old dashboard, you would sometimes have to wait 2-3 weeks to see your page update. With the new dashboard, we see an almost instantaneous update in the description field. The images however still take a little longer.

4. No More Custom Categories

Google no longer allows you to create custom categories for your Google Places listing. You now must choose the categories that match your business offerings based on the categories that Google has established. They had previously removed custom categories in Google + Business Profiles, now the same is true for Google Places Pages. You can now add up to 10 categories to your listing, provided they fit one of Google’s categories.

5. Photo Improvements

Google has also made a bunch of upgrades to the photos that will appear on your Google Listing. You are no longer limited to 10 images, and can upload your images in bulk. You can also select which photo you would like to use for your profile picture on your listing.

6. No Field for YouTube Videos

In the latest update, there is no field for placing YouTube videos. If a business owner wants to add video to their listing or manage their social stream, they need to have a personal Google + Profile.

7. Increased Support for Service Area Listings

Finally Google is acknowledging Service Area Businesses allowing them to have a Google + Local page and to hide their address if they want.  It allows business to map a service area radius from their location and place cities or zip code they serve.

8. New Insights Interface

Although Google hasn’t given you much more information in your analytics, they have updated the interface. All of the information is now in bar graph format vs. the line graph in the old dashboard. There are also different tabs for impressions, actions, search queries, and driving directions.  The information hasn’t changed much yet, but the look and feel is different.

9. Promotion for other Google Products

The new interface seems to encourage the use of Adwords Express and Google Offers, and acts as a dashboard for all three. Google is pushing these products to compete with other local marketing sites like Yelp, Bing Local, and Groupon.

10. Don’t Merge Your Google Listing with Google + Local…. Yet.

 Thinking about merging your Google Places Listing with a Google + Business Profile? Maybe you should wait a bit. Google advises business owners to hold off with the merge because this process is still a bit buggy.  Google plans on updating the dashboard with an “Upgrade” button that will make the process much smoother. To prevent a headache, you should hold off on upgrading for a bit.

Google has finally addressed many of the concerns Local Search Marketers have been facing with for quite a while, but expect the dashboard to change several times in the coming months.

A lot of Webmasters commented last weekend on heavy traffic fluctuations with their top keyword targets. Some saw a loss of traffic and others saw a large bump in traffic, but those numbers have seemingly gone back to normal.

Some people think the reason for the fluctuation was a Google update and others believe it was just normal transgressions due to the holiday. Since the search results seem to have gone back to what they were prior to the shift it is more likely that there was no update.

Google+ for Business New Design

Google announced a new look for the Google+ for business dashboard this week. The new interface will have an app-like feel that will be easier to edit and interact with. The new update features will also allow any changes you make to your business listing go live faster.

The new business pages are being introduced to Google+ for business in a rolling fashion so that not all companies will be updated at the same time. Google is most likely making changes gradually to work out any issues that may arise from these changes.

Squidoo Nofollow Links

Squidoo has been exploited by SEOs and web spammers over the years and was hit hard by Panda last year. The online blog post mecca announced this week that all external links from the site will now be given the nofollow tag.

While this may prevent spammers from reducing the validity of the site, taking away all external links is unlikely to be a good thing for Squidoo in the long run. Perhaps they are taking a momentary breather from spammers to try an re-build their authority with different search engines.

Facebook Home Android App

Facebook announced its newest app for the Android OS to be released on April 12^th. The app will be an amendment to the OS so that Facebook is the primary interface for whatever mobile device is being used.

The new app will connect the user directly to a Facebook feed when the mobile device is turned on and will keep Facebook updates to the forefront of all activities. For the war between Facebook and Google+ this is a clear leg up for mobile users.

Link Networks Targeted

Google has always frowned upon the practice of buying links in order to try to gain unnatural authority for your website. Now they are making more examples of people who still engage in the practice by penalizing known link networks as well as websites who use them.

First Google targeted the link network giant SAPE and anyone affiliated with them in what the SEO community is calling the end of link building. The black hat SEO practice of link building has finally become something that Google is actively targeting on a large scale, once again leveling the playing field for all SEOs.

Google Releases How Search Works

Intended for all audiences, the new How Search Works page released by Google weaves an intricate tale of how the search engine serves up content. The educational page goes into detail about how Google decides what to put at the top of a search query and why.

The page is written in a way that people without SEO experience can follow, but there are advantages for more advanced web users as well. Getting first-hand insight into how search engines work can be a very helpful advantage for the SEO community to get more involved in SEO best practices.

Google Panda on Autopilot

One of the largest SEO disruptions of our time cam in early 2011 when Google Panda was rolled out and changed the face of search optimization. Since it was first introduced to the Internet, the Google Panda algorithm has had regular updates to give it better assessment quality.

While Google still intends to use the Panda update to hone its search query results, those updates will now be done automatically. The Google algorithm has had automatic updates based on its rolling algorithm and now the Panda update is a part of that.

Accidental Penalties

Digg is a news website that has steadily grown in popularity over the years and fell off the map momentarily when Google penalized the whole website rather than just the one page it found questionable. The mistake was immediately noticed and fixed so that the website only sustained a penalty for a fraction of a day.

The same thing happened with Craigslist and people in the SEO community noticed. These massive website penalties getting noticed and fixed right away raised other questions for Webmasters. People who work in SEO regularly are wondering how quick Google would be to fix similar issues for smaller websites.

2013 Penguin Update

The Penguin piece of the Google algorithm has seen three major updates since it beginning and another update is coming soon, says Matt Cutts. In announcement made at SMX West, Matt Cutts told the SEO community to expect a noticeable Penguin update sometime in 2013.

Even though the release date of the update is ambiguous at best, it gives the Webmasters in charge of SEO some warning that the update aimed at black hat practices like link building is becoming more and more sophisticated.

Bing Webmaster Tools Gets Better

In the Google-driven world of Internet search the only company to come close to rivaling the search giant is the Microsoft search engine Bing. As Google grows and changes, so to does Bing and one way they make improvements is through the Webmaster Tools.

This month, Bing updated its Webmaster Tools to accommodate websites wanting to move to a new domain. The ne features allow a domain move for individual URLs within a website, something Webmasters have been asking from Google for some time. Bing is always looking for a way to get a leg up in search and giving Webmasters what they want is a good way to go about it.

March Local Search Updates

Google Maps for iPhone Updated

In early March the iPhone app for Google Maps was updated to include seven new countries and also added icons for the types of businesses most often searched. The addition of these icons makes searching on Maps for local restaurants and hotels even easier for all users.

While it has been a growing trend to use Google maps to find businesses near you, with the new picture search options the process becomes even more simple and at-the-touch-of-a-button. As Google Maps becomes more prevalent in mobile search the need for local search SEO grows as well.

Redirect URLs not Allowed in Google Maps

Google released a hard line about having redirected URLs within your business listing for Google Maps. The announcement stated that your business listing could not have a domain move without creating a whole new listing because Google was not going to accept any URLs that are not original.

Different countries around the world are given two letter abbreviations at the end of URLS to help differentiate them for local markets. There has a been an interesting new trend for people to come up with creative URLs using these abbreviations to try and help generate interest for their website.

With the announcement demanding original URLs in business listings, Google is quelling this marketing trend before it really begins. One of the examples given by Google as unacceptable was

• Not Allowed: Walmart.stor.es/ which later direct user to http://www.walmart.com
• Allowed: http://www.walmart.com/

The news outlet Digg was accidentally removed from the index this week when Google applied a penalty to the whole site that was only meant for one post. Google recognized their mistake almost immediately and fixed the bug. The same happened with Craigslist and again, Google fixed it right away.

Because the mistake was fixed so quickly it leaves Webmasters wondering if the same would be true for a smaller site. Google has always insisted that small websites receive the same consideration as large websites but some people wonder if the mistake would have been fixed so quickly for a smaller site.

Porn Found in Knowledge Graph on Google

Every time Google creates a new search function it goes through a period where people try to exploit it. The knowledge graph was recently discovered as having pornography show up in search results.  Google became aware of the situation and quickly added new security function to help exclude those images from being displayed.

Bing Allows Webmasters to Move Site More Easily Than Google

Bing added new functionality in their Webmaster Tools to make it easier for website owners to move to a new domain. While Google has the same function in Webmaster Tools, the Bing functionality is said to be more user-friendly and efficient.

The site move in Bing Webmaster Tools allows the user to change over every URL individually to lessen any confusion. Google Webmaster Tools does not have the same level of support, offering only a full domain transfer rather than individual pages.

Google Trends Now Supports YouTube Videos

Google Trends now includes YouTube videos to report on “what’s hot.” Including YouTube means that the video searches in the online video giant will now contribute to what’s trending in Google.

Having a Twitter account for business can be a way to reach out to your customer base on a regular basis. By doing so you can generate buzz on the internet and attract more versatile audiences.

What Should My Business Tweet?

When using your business Twitter account you want to keep the tweets relevant to your industry but also interesting to the most people. Some of the things you can tweet about for your business are:

• Events happening at your store
• Sale events
• Industry news
• Interesting facts about your industry
• Industry FAQ
• Business news

Industry hot topics are an important part of tweeting. You have to know what people in your industry are talking about and then weigh in on the conversation. Even re-tweeting popular posts can be helpful for your business because it loops you in with others in your industry.

Managing Your Business Twitter Account

The most important part of having a Twitter account is to stay on top of it. Make sure you are tweeting on a regular basis and that those tweets are interesting for your followers.

At 51 Blocks our online reputation management includes Twitter accounts and other social media integration. Get the knowledge of our Internet marketing experts to help manage your business Twitter account.