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As part of Google’s ongoing effort to improve their Webmaster Tools, they’ve launched 2 new features which I think will make life easier for many webmasters.

The first one is called Fetch As Googlebot Mobile and it’s an addition to the recently presented Fetch As Googlebot feature in Webmaster Tools. The tool shows, in real time, what Googlebot and Mobile Googlebot sees when it accesses the page.

To access the tool:

• Login to Webmaster Tools
• Select your site
• Go to Labs > Fetch as Googlebot

The second addition in Webmaster Tools is the possibility of adding extra users to particular account, just like you would do in Google Analytics. This means that both you, the client, and in fact, anyone can access the same account. The down-side is the fact that the list of verified users has to be maintained and updated if needed.

To access the tool:

• Login to Webmaster Tools
• Click on Verify next to your site
• Click Add a user

Go to Webmaster Tools to check out new tools and visit our Search Engine Otimisation page to see how Pod1 Ecommerce can help you improve your website’s rankings

Find out more how Pod1 can help you with Search Engine Optimisation

There was no need to watch the Oscars live this week you could have used Google instead, the search engine has released some lovely graphs to show how search traffic trended through out the night as different categories and winners were announced. I suppose this is one way to miss all those ‘gushy’ acceptance speeches. Anyway here is Google’s take on their lovely graphs, enjoy;-)

Winners
Throughout the night Oscar®-related searches rose and fell as nominations were introduced and winners announced. Avatar had the most searches before the ceremony, but as The Hurt Locker received more awards, searches for that film exceeded all others and peaked when it won Best Picture. Precious also had a good run throughout the night. Its peak matched that of “Avatar” during the ceremony:

Click on the image above for the full article

1. Users can restrict their searches for content in 35 non-English languages, including Klingon.
2. Google’s search technology PageRank has nothing to do with webpage ranking. It’s actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page.
3. Google’s Home Page Has 42 Validation Errors.
4. The ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button is almost never used. Google has kept it as some user experience trials have shown that for some people it is a comfort button. The button actually costs Google around $110 million a year.
5. Google’s revenue from advertising amounts to 97% of the total revenue. In 2009 advertising earned Google $22,888,804,000.

   

6. Google’s name is a play on the word googol, which refers to the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes.
7. Google’s domain name was registered on 15^th August1997 and the beta version of the site looked like that: Google in 1998
8. In 1997, Larry Page and Sergey Brin needed large amount of disk space to test their PageRank algorithm, but the largest hard disks available at the time were only 4 GB. They stacked up 10 of these together and solved the issue… not for long though.
9. Googleville data center is calculated to require about 103 megawatts of electricity – enough to power 82,000 homes. Google calculated that it uses as little as 1 kJ (0.0003 kWh) of energy to answer the average search query.
10. Google has 20k employees. They can spend 20% of their time working on ideas and projects that interest them. 50% of Google products originated from this 20%.

This is a step-by-step guide on how to claim hijacked Google Maps business listing. This can also be useful if you simply want to increase your listing’s visibility in Google Maps and universal search (since verified listings appear higher up in results).

1. Go to Google Local Business Center http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter.
2. Click on ‘Add new listing’ and fill in the form using exact details that the hijacked listing is using (even if it’s incorrect) and click ‘Next’.
3. Most likely you will now see a screen asking “Already on Google Maps?” saying that the listing you entered closely matches the listings already existing on Google Maps.
4. Click on ‘Claim Listing’ button next to the unverified listing which is the most similar to the correct/accurate one.
5. Now Google will ask you if you want to edit the listing or suspend it. Both need verification so you will choose ‘Suspend’ and once you verify it can be re-activated with correct information.
6. Next, choose the verification method. Google offers either telephone or postcard verification.
   • If you choose phone verification, Google will make an automated call to the supplied business number straight after verification request. The message will include a PIN number which then needs to be added to the verification box on the site.
   • If you choose postcard verification, Google will send a postcard within 2-3 weeks to the store address you provided. The postcard will also have the PIN number which needs to be entered on the site.
7. Once you get the PIN, enter it in the box on Google Local Business Centre website and press ‘Verify’. If verification was successful, you can go back and re-activate the listing with correct info.

Read more about Google Maps and Search Engine Optimisation techniques.

Checkout the newly redesigned homepage for www.jigsaw-online.com. The new design was introduced to aid the merchandising of the site. Allowing the client to promote more products and offers direct from the homepage while allowing users easy access to the area of the site they require.

It’s also much better for SEO, the site has already improved rankings for a number of generic search terms thanks in no small part to the category navigation now being on the homepage.

Here are some essential URL SEO tips which can improve your website usability and search engine rankings:

Domain Name Structure Considerations

Try to include the most important keyword in the domain name, e.g. www.lakeside-hotels.com. Although it’s not always possible, you should consider it when re-building the site (just don’t forget to use hyphens to separate words and redirect old to new URLs).

Separate Multiple Keywords In URL Using Hyphens

Using hyphens to split multiple keywords in URL makes it easier for search engines to make sense out of your URL. Hyphens essentially tell search engine robots: “This is the end of one keyword and the beginning of another”.

Re-write Dynamic URL To Static URL

Use mod_rewrite (URL Rewriting Engine) to change the dynamic URL, e.g. www.lakeside-hotels.com/product.php?category=room&price=else to something more readable and accessible for both users and robots, e.g. www.lakeside-hotels.com/balcony-room. Dynamic URLs get indexed slower and reduce clickthroughs from search engines (as they look less relevant in search results).

Include Relevant Keywords In URL

It sounds like a no-brainer (get keywords, use them when re-writing, separate using hyphens). However, it’s important to understand what a relevant keyword is. Usually, keywords in the URL should at least partially correspond to keywords in the page title.

Things to remember:

• Don’t overcook it – don’t bother with more than 10 keywords for each URL
• Keep the most important keywords at the beginning of URL
• There’s no point in using words like ‘and’ ‘of’ ‘in’ ‘our’

Eliminate Duplicate Content

There are at least 4 ways to remove duplicate content:

• Use Google Webmaster Tools or .htaccess file to choose a preferred version of your domain – www vs. non-www.
• Use canonical link element (rel=”canonical”) to clean up duplicate urls and let robots know which URL they should focus on when they found multiple URLs with the same content. Supported by all major search engines now. Read more here.
• Use the parameter handling tool in Google Webmaster tools to tell robots proffered version of the URL. Doesn’t require coding changes but works on Google only.
• Redirect duplicated content to the preferred version of the URL using 301 Permanent redirect rules.

Read more about optimising URLs and SEO Services

There is one thing that isn’t in any doubt Google Buzz has certainly lived up to its name and generated more than it’s fair share of buzz since launch but unfortunately not all for the right reasons.

By far the biggest concern to date has been around Privacy Issues which Google has been quick to address but it seems in many peoples opinion not quick enough. This has resulted in the filing of a class action complaint, yesterday in San Jose federal court, on behalf of a Florida woman Eva Hibnick. The complaint claims Google has broken a number of laws relating to electronic communication, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The problem arose with the way that Google effectively turned Gmail into a social networking site overnight without informing users and leaving them to opt out or run the risk of allowing access to a wide range of information that they would have preferred to remain private.

Google has apologized for various Buzz shortcomings in a series of blog posts and took steps to address many of the concerns, including allowing users to shut it off completely, but otherwise is refusing to comment.

Google is no stranger to legal disputes but this may have a wider impact on how it approaches Social Media in the future. With many still trying to work out how best to use Wave, Buzz was an important next step for Google and with a more considered launch approach could have been an instant success.

Find out what people talk & tweet about, why they tag the site in social bookmarking sites and how popular the site is in the blogsphere. You can do it all in no more than 5 minutes, just enter the URL of page or domain you want to check and hit submit.

A funny advert from Google