We've all seen the commercials showing happy couples who met via one of the many online dating sites. Perhaps you've even met your sweetie on one of these sites. With approximately 1,500 active dating sites in the U.S. and every site espousing their special formulas for matching people with their soulmates, it seems like it would be easy to find that special someone online.
But does online dating really make it easier to meet that one-and-only soulmate? Or is finding that special someone just a matter of being in the right place at the right time—and not necessarily online?
This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.
“It’s official, Google is broken and my career is over. Time to hide under my desk.”
A bit extreme? Yes. But, if you saw what I saw a month ago, your reaction would’ve been exactly the same. Let me explain.
It was 5:55 pm and I was getting ready to go home after a good day’s work at Practice Fusion. “Let’s just do a quick Google search for Practice Fusion so I can give myself a high five before I head home.” That’s when the panic started.
Here’s what my non-personalized search for Practice Fusion pulled up in position #1:
Do you see what I see?! Ranking #1 for the term Practice Fusion isn’t our high-converting, very helpful homepage….it’s our rarely looked at, poor converting Executive Team page! OMG to the extreme! Plus, where the heck did our Google+ page go?
First thought: “Breathe. Crawl out from under desk.”
Second thought: “Maybe this has something to do with the fact that Google knows I’m in San Francisco.”
“Let’s change that to ‘United States’ and see what happens.”
Aww, that’s more like it. Seeing these results is like being reunited with a best friend, or some really good hot chocolate – it’s warm and soothes the soul. PracticeFusion.com is back on top, and our Google+ profile is showing up. Nice.
Then I tried changing my city to Oakland, Palo Alto, Mountain View, and New York. Every time I got my good results. Why the heck was the location of San Francisco giving me such a hard time?
“Are you responsible for this Lou Seal?!”
“Okay. Good.”
Still in a bit of disbelief I wandered over to Google Analytics to check a few things. First, I wanted to see where natural search visitors to our Executive Team page were coming from. Were most of them from San Francisco?
Short answer: yup.
Next, I wanted to see if the natural search visitors to the Executive Team page were coming in from the Practice Fusion keyword. It turns out that ALL visitors to the Executive Team page came in by searching for Practice Fusion.
Clearly, something is happening. Or, as Martin Lawrence would say…
Normally I’m all for Google local results, but this just seems wrong. Why would someone in San Francisco want to see our Executive Team page over our home page? It seems like a really bad user experience, especially since the Executive Team page has less authority (by far) than our home page.
Executive Page
Home Page
Why was Google doing this? Was it something I said?
Apparently, Google thinks that the Executive Team page will be a good result for people in San Francisco. But, why do they think this? The answer to this question is the same as the answer to “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop?”
“The world may never know.”
However, after a lot of research, here’s my best guess. And, believe me, it’s a bit surprising.
Under certain conditions, Google will swap a sitelink for the main search result.
Yup, I said it.
Here’s how I tested it.
On February 7th I went into the “Sitelinks” section of Google Webmaster Tools and demoted the Executive Team page as a sitelink for our homepage URL. I was working a hunch.
After a few weeks went by, I looked at the results.
Visits to the Executive Team Page from San Francisco
As you can see, about a week and a half after demoting the Executive Team page from sitelinks, it no longer shows up as the first result (even if you’re in San Francisco) and the visits to that page go to zero.
This must mean that Google feels comfortable bumping a sitelink up to the main search result!
But why bump up the Executive Team Page? It’s only a guess, but it looks like it’s because of the sites linking to that page. Of the external sites with links pointing to the Executive Team page, 60% of them have “San Francisco” at least once on the page. Of the sites linking to our home page, only 29% of them mention “San Francisco”. Perhaps this is influencing Google.
Conclusions
Under certain conditions, Google will bump a sitelink up to the main search result. Potentially, and sneakily, costing you conversions.
One of those conditions might be the content of the sites linking to you and the location of the person searching.
Suggestion
Look in analytics to find the landing pages for your branded searches. If they’re not going to your home page, it might have something to do with your sitelinks. Check it out, you might just save yourself some conversions.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!
President Obama’s health care law requires that new health insurance plans cover preventive services with no co-pay or deductible. In the last 18 months, a new provision of the Affordable Care Act has done just that for approximately 20.4 million women with private health insurance.
Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog:
On Nowruz, President Obama Speaks to the Iranian People Today is a holiday that reminds us of the rich culture of the Iranian people, and the extraordinary contributions that they have made to human history. Yet even as holidays like this underscore the connections that we share as human beings, the Government of Iran is going to great lengths to isolate the Iranian people by cutting them off from the outside world.
Using Technology to Help Homeless Veterans More than 67,000 veterans spent one night homeless, living in emergency shelters, transitional housing units or on the streets in 2011, according to last year's "point in time" count conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in coordination with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The real world is messy. Signs hang at funny angles (or upside down). There's dirt in the corner. Cables are in disarray.
In the digital world, when something is out of place, we notice it.
It's a mistake to believe that messiness is always a bad thing. The organic feng shui of the real world gives us comfort, it makes things feel real or special or treasured.
Over time, our digital footprints add up and create a cyber world that starts to take on some of that very same messiness. Change a font or a layout or where something is, and it bothers us.
You can take advantage of that need for comfort by making your digital work a little less sterile, a bit less squared off.
Implementing an additional ad unit on pages with less than three ad units can result in a clear uplift of your AdSense earnings. In this issue's optimisation section, we help you decide when it's appropriate to add an additional ad unit to your pages. You'll also learn about:
Using Electronic Funds Transfer to receive payments
Subscribing to our Inside AdSense Blog
Receiving occasional emails from AdSense
Implementing AdSense for Content on game play pages
Checking your account performance with the AdSense Publisher Toolbar
Kind regards,
Sophie
The Google AdSense team
Tip of the Month
Think about your users and existing content when adding new units
Placing additional ad units on content-rich and policy-compliant pages of your site is one of the most revenue-positive changes you can make to your AdSense implementation. You can place new ad units on pages that aren't yet showing AdSense ads, or increase the number of AdSense ad units to three.
Whether your ads are from AdSense or other sources, the focus of your site should always be on delivering the best possible user experience. When choosing where to place new ad units, consider the layout of your pages and the amount of content on them. For more information and recommendations, check out our video below.
Updates
Start using Electronic Funds Transfer to receive your payments
Did you know that standard delivery cheques can take up to four weeks to arrive and that you may also be charged a commission fee when depositing your cheque? Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payments arrive directly to your bank account just days after posting to your payments page and are free of charge. As an added bonus, EFT is the most environmentally-friendly payment method available, eliminating the paper needed to print and send a cheque. Check whether EFT is available in your country and follow the sign-up instructions in our Help Center.
Subscribe to our Inside AdSense Blog
We regularly post helpful information in our Inside AdSense Blog - everything from event invites to product announcements and optimisation tips. Make sure you're on top of what's happening in AdSense by subscribing to our blog via feed or email. Both options are on the right-hand panel and it only takes seconds to complete. Sign up today!
Check your account performance with the AdSense Publisher Toolbar
We recently released a new Chrome extension called AdSense Publisher Toolbar, which allows you to see a snapshot of your earnings and account performance while you're viewing your site. It also includes ad overlays that describe the recent performance of specific ad units. Learn more on about this extension in our Inside AdSense blog and try it out today.
Did you know that our team offers occasional emails other than the AdSense newsletter? You can, for example, choose to receive personalised optimisation tips or invitations to AdSense events. An overview of the available types of emails can be found in our Help Center. To change your email preferences:
Sign in to your account.
On the ‘Home’ tab, visit the ‘Account settings’ page.
In the ‘Personal settings’ section, click ‘edit’.
Check the boxes associated with the types of messages that you'd like to receive.
Click Save.
To make the most of your account, we encourage you to receive those additional emails. Make sure you also check out the new AdSense newsletter archive.
Program Policies
AdSense for Content on game play pages
Previously, we shared how keeping the right distance between ads and content, and using the right product, can help to avoid accidental clicks. Publishers with gaming sites have also asked for advice on how to place AdSense for Content ads on game play pages. In this blog post , we provide more tips, insights, and examples of ad implementations on game play pages that are compliant and not-compliant with our policies.
Email Preferences: We sent you this email because you have indicated that you are willing to receive occasional AdSense newsletters. If you do not wish to receive such emails in the future, you can opt out by clicking here: https://www.google.com/adsense/v3/unsubscribe?auth=aAN57ISXWebSaxbq4KSXLTze93ZX91YTfWCilTVuL840S1f6R-E1ii-c2p27stdVlxEKdkbpCPvxkpYKDywbUr3wT4mEczMpMEA==
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