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vineri, 5 decembrie 2014

Panda 4.1 Google Leaked Dos and Don'ts - Whiteboard Friday

Posted: 04 Dec 2014 04:15 PM PST

Josh Bachynski takes you inside Panda 4.1 with a tour of some of the top dos and don'ts for your website. And it's about so much more than the standard "good content" refrain. Watch the video to learn more.

For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!

Video Transcription

Hi and welcome to a Whiteboard Friday with Josh Bachynski, who some people call the Ginger Rand. Today I want to talk about Panda 4.1 and the Google leaked dos and don'ts. Recently, another algorithm named Penguin has been getting a lot of attention in Google. But I want to make sure that we don't forget about Panda.

Penguin is to SEO as kind of like Jason Voorhees, if you will. It's very scary, and it comes around every now and then and slices and dices websites. But Panda is more, in my opinion, kind of like Freddy Krueger. He's always kind of there in the background, in your nightmares, waiting to strike at any site, whether they think they're breaking the rules or not.

So I think it's very important to keep Panda in mind, even in the wake of Penguin craziness. "Okay, Josh," you ask, "well then what can we do to fix Panda or deal with Panda?" Well, Google has, in the past, three years ago, produced a set of very vague questions that are supposed to be intended to help websites deal with Panda. However, I found this unsatisfactory, and many webmasters have found this unsatisfactory.

So what I did, because apparently I have very little to do with myself, I scoured the Internet for the last two or three years for every single reference of Panda I could find, from John Mueller, from Maile Ohye, from Pierre Far, from Gary Iles, all of the various Google employees that I could find, including the elite Quality Raters Guidelines. I scoured all the references from these materials coming directly from Google of any reference they made to a quality algorithm, any specific, actionable thing they said to do based on that quality algorithm.

What I did is I made a complete list, a complete do's and don'ts list. Now the complete list is on my website, which I'll share in a second. It takes me about an hour to go through the whole thing, so what I wanted to do for the wonderful Mozzers on Whiteboard Friday was to collect just kind of the top four dos and the top four don'ts and talk about those in a way that's more specific than the vague questions and I hope more helpful, but also short enough that I can condense into a Whiteboard Friday.

So I bet you're thinking to yourself, Josh, if you're going to tell me just to make good content, I'm going to hurl. I don't want anyone to hurl. Please don't hurl. So I'm going to get to some specifics actually.

Here they are here. The collapsed do and don't list. The first section is the do list, and I've broken it down into four major dos that you should pay attention to for your website.

The first one is ensure task completion. Google's been talking a lot about task completion, more on the mobile side, but also on the desktop side as well. On my Panda list, when I scoured all the Google sources for this information, I found that they talk a lot about having to worry about your user metrics, what users are doing on your site, whether or not they're satisfied with your content, whether they're bouncing back to Google, or they're leaving your site to go directly to some other site.

So I boiled that all down to say ensure task completion. Whatever tasks that page is supposed to complete, you want to make sure it completes it. If it's a sign-up page, you want to make sure they sign up. Above the fold, you want to make sure it loads in the first three seconds and the main content is very clearly a sign-up page, if it's supposed to be a sign-up page. Or a download page, or if it's supposed to be information, if they wanted top five tips on X, Y, or Z, on Freddy Krueger, what are the five top best things about Freddy Krueger, it should say that above the fold so they can complete that task and Google can make sure they can track that they complete that task.

Of course, your analytics will tell you whether or not you're succeeding in that regard. If you see a lot of drop offs on that page, that could be a problem because those could be bounces back to Google.

Number two, you want to make sure you have various offsite references. So what kind of references am I talking about? I'm taking about any possible reference that you can get. Any way that Google can tell that this is a quality site, that people recommend this site, that's what you want. So you want people in the social world talking about you, sharing you, any of the major social networks, I don't care. Also, you want the experts in those particular social networks talking about you.

For example, if you are in SEO and if Rand Fishkin or other top SEOs are not talking about your content, that's a problem, because Google knows very well who the experts are, and they definitely will take into consideration if experts are talking about your content. At least, this is what I found on my list. For all the references again, you can go back to my list, which I'll mention out loud in a second.

Also, of course, you want links. Everyone knows you want links. But the links, of course, should be topical. If there is a forum in your industry or a blog in your industry or a magazine in your industry or a newspaper, anything like that in your industry, if they're not talking about you, that's a problem. You want to make sure they're talking about you, and, of course, it should be in a positive way. Hopefully, they're not talking about you in a negative way. That could be an issue.

Finally, you want to make sure you get reviews. The four star rating, nine out of ten blips, eight out of four blops, whatever it is, you want to make sure you get reviews, and they should be on independently verified sources, but also that Google can read, so Yelp, Zagat, and Google+. If you're not a local-based business, you still probably want some good reviews or references from the Better Business Bureau or Wikipedia or any kind of these other forums I talked about that are your industry specific. That is all telling Google that this site is a quality site.

Three, you want to make sure you have reputable business information on every page. This was something that was a little bit striking, that a lot of people don't know about. You want to make sure that you have on every page your address, your phone, and contact information. You want to make sure on your site you have a robust mission statement, a robust company directory. Not just a form with just kind of a standard WordPress form, where you click it and it might email somebody or it might not. You want to make sure that all the business information on your website, the phone number, the address are current and correct and that they can easily contact you and tell that you're a reputable business from any given page. That includes copyright information as well. You want to make sure your copyright is up to date on the site.

Finally, you want to make sure you cite your sources. Google is a company run by academics, and so it should be unsurprising to find that these academics want you to -- what did they tell you in college -- cite your sources. So if there are any big Wikipedia articles or any larger industry related websites that talk about your information, you should be giving a link out to those people. You should be citing your source and indicating to Google that you're an upstanding web citizen, or, at the very least, you know who the big dogs are in your industry and you're citing those sources when it is applicable.

There are many more things you should be doing, but again, I can't go through them all. So please go to my website to see, one, where I got the references for all this information. I'm not just making it up. I actually found places where actual Googlers have said this. You can check the other dos.

Now let's go to the don'ts. Now, if you go check my list, you'll see there are far more don'ts than there are dos, which I guess that's the state of the union as it is right now. But some of the most important don'ts I've listed here.

One, you want to make sure that you do not repeat keywords anywhere. This is important. You don't want to repeat keywords too much on page, and you don't want to repeat keywords too much across the site. You don't need ten pages about your pink shoes, blue shoes, green shoes. You don't need ten pages about the law you do in New York and Boston and Winnipeg and Toronto and Nunavut or wherever else you're doing law. This is definitely kind of a spammy signal for Google, and Google has mentioned this a million times in a bunch of different places, which I list.

Also you don't need to pepper your text with multiple keywords either, especially not to link it to other pages on your site just to try and make Google understand you're about that. Google already knows you're probably about that topic.

Tying directly to that, you don't want to make content just for SEO's sake. You see this quite a lot, that people think that they need to update their blog on a weekly basis, or they think that they have to have that freshness signal, and they will sacrifice quality of content for rapidity of publishing.

Again, that is something that Google had mentioned a bunch of times. This is low-quality content, and you don't need it. Rand has shared numerous posts, and Moz has shared numerous posts about it. If there's no one to amplify your content, then there's no point in doing so. If you're not going to publish content that people go "wow" about, then you don't need to publish it, and you can save that money.

Three, you don't want to forget your tie. What do I mean by that? What I mean is, when you go to a job interview, you don't want to forget your suit or forget your tie. The website is the exact same thing. You want to make sure you've crossed all the i's and dotted all the t's or crossed all the t's or dotted all the i's, or however it goes. You want to make sure that the spelling and grammar has been checked, that all the pages have been checked for errors, that there are no miscellaneous 500 errors, there are no naked Apache 404 errors. You want to make sure that, essentially, the website has been looked over and proofed. This is, as Google tells us, a direct signal that they're looking for in their quality algorithms. It makes sense because you don't want to see a site that has these kinds of errors on it.

Finally, the one that I'll share with you today, number four and this is another controversial one, is you do not want to interfere with the website usage with ads. So Google has been very clear in the Quality Raters Guidelines, in particular, and in a few other leaks from a few other Googlers, that you do not want to interrupt the user process of them going through your page by having a giant ad here and a giant ad here and a pop-up that comes up that they have to click away and then they're scrolling and reading down a little bit more, and then there's another ad that gets in the way. They have to scroll past that. This was directly mentioned in the Quality Raters Guidelines as a very blatant, low-quality site signal.

I know it cuts into revenue, and I know it could be an issue for some sites to have to consider to change this. But again and again, every Panda review that I do, I see issues like this as well.

So that is the condensed Do and Don't List. Again, I have references for where I found all this information, and I have a much, much longer don't list, about 26 items on that don't list that I was able to find over the last 3 years. So please go ahead and check it out on my site. The site is called TheMoralConcept.net/pandalist.html. Hopefully, that'll be down there somewhere in the blog.

Thanks for paying attention. Thanks for watching. Again, my name is Josh Bachynski. You can email me if you have any questions about this or any SEO questions at all. There's my ungodly long last name and my email that you can try to email me from. So thanks very much for watching, and we'll see you next time.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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joi, 4 decembrie 2014

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Roubini Sees "Mother of All Asset Bubbles", But Claims Bubble Will Not Burst Until 2016
Putin Threatens Currency Speculators; Six Ways to Know a Currency is in Deep Trouble
4 Million Homeowners Still Underwater, Total Negative Equity $157 Billion

Roubini Sees "Mother of All Asset Bubbles", But Claims Bubble Will Not Burst Until 2016

Posted: 04 Dec 2014 01:51 PM PST

How big can the current asset bubble get? Stocks, bonds (especially junk bonds), and equities are all in huge bubbles.

I know full well that calling the end is problematic. Economist Nouriel Roubini thinks he knows.

Roubini says we are in the "mother of all asset bubbles" but it's going to get even bigger, not popping until 2016.

Link if above video does not play: Roubini: We're in an asset bubble and it won't pop until 2016

We're currently in the mid-late stretch of this boom, "so next year we'll see economic growth and easy money. This frothiness that we've seen in financial markets is likely to continue from equities to credit to housing," says Roubini. He predicts an eventual crash, but not for at least a few years.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Putin Threatens Currency Speculators; Six Ways to Know a Currency is in Deep Trouble

Posted: 04 Dec 2014 10:51 AM PST

Here's a lesson about various ways to spot a currency that is in deep-deep trouble.

Crackdown on "currency speculators"
Accusations of foreign interference
Measures to stop capital flight
Repatriation amnesty in hopes money will return home
Currency action itself
Currency controls

Ruble Analysis

Let's check those six measures starting with today's report Putin Threatens Crackdown on Currency Speculators.

1. Putin Blames Currency Speculators

Vladimir Putin threatened to crack down on speculators against the rouble as he called on Russia to put its economic house in order to fight what he called an attempt by outside enemies to bring the country to its knees. "We have asked the central bank to take measures to make sure that speculators can no longer take advantage," Russia's president said in a speech on Thursday. "We know who those people are, and we have the means to rein them in. It's time to use these instruments."

2. Putin Blames Foreigners and Plays Hitler Card

"Hitler with his misanthropic ideas tried to destroy Russia and throw us back behind the Urals. Just remember how that ended," Mr Putin said. "If [Russia's annexation of Crimea] had not happened, they would have found another excuse for holding Russia back and Russia down. This has been happening for centuries — every time the west thinks Russia is getting too strong, they use these policies."

3. Measures to Stop Capital Flight

"We need to reverse the history of capital flight from our country, we need to end this era," Mr Putin said.

4. Amnesty for All

Putin promised an amnesty for offshore capital returning home, saying Russians bringing back money from abroad would not have to prove where they got it from.

5. Currency Action

Since July 2008 the Ruble had gone from 24Rub-per-US$ to 54Rub-per-US$. That is a decline of 55.55%. In the last six months alone, the Ruble has gone from 34Rub-per-US$ to 54Rub-per-US$. That is a 6-month decline of 37%.

6. Currency controls

Anton Siluanov, finance minister, reiterated the government's commitment to abstain from currency controls after Mr Putin's speech, but said that the government and the central bank would "co-ordinate" the actions of exporters on the foreign exchange market to reduce their collective influence on the rouble exchange rate.

Does that sound like the start of currency controls to you? It does to me.

If the US and Iran come to agreement ending sanctions on Iran, more Iranian oil will flow on the markets, likely pressuring prices further (assuming all other factors remain the same). A slowing global economy also pressures oil prices.

In turn, falling oil prices pressures the Ruble.

As bad as things look for Russia on the Ruble front, there is potential for things to get much worse.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

4 Million Homeowners Still Underwater, Total Negative Equity $157 Billion

Posted: 03 Dec 2014 11:41 PM PST

In spite of a sustained rally in home prices, the October Black Knight Financial Services Mortgage Monitor shows Four million borrowers currently underwater.

Highlights

Black Knight found that even though underwater mortgages are now less than 8% of all mortgages, there are still roughly 4 million borrowers in negative equity positions, who are, on average, $39,000 underwater.
Underwater borrowers, representing nearly $800 billion in unpaid balances and $157 billion in negative equity, are 10X more likely to be delinquent than those with positive equity.
Underwater borrowers exhibit a 40% delinquency rate, as compared to just 4% for borrowers with equity
For those with combined LTVs of 150% or greater, more than 3 out of every four (77%) are delinquent
There are approximately 1.3 million underwater GSE-backed mortgages representing an aggregate $39 billion in negative equity; of these, 365K are delinquent
Much-discussed principal reductions on delinquent underwater borrowers would require up to $89 billion in write-downs; the GSE share alone would require up to $18 billion
Black Knight found some relaxation in credit requirements for refinance originations (though these are still high by historical standards)
Weighted average credit scores for GSE refinances have come down to 742 from a high of 766 in late 2011, while credit requirements on GSE purchase mortgages have remained tight since 2009
GNMA backed originations have also seen some relaxation in refi credit requirements, with weighted average credit scores down from 727 at the end of 2012 to 701 (which is still significantly higher than 2005's average of 628)
Looking at the refi market as a whole, Black Knight found that borrowers with 740+ credit scores make up 55% of 2014 refi market, as compared to just 29% in 2005

Sustained Improvement in Negative Equity

Over the past two and a half years, there has been a sustained and continual improvement in negative equity, from 33.5 percent of borrowers being underwater in January 2012 to less than eight percent today

Only 1.2 percent of active mortgages have current CLTVs of 150 percent or higher, down from 9.5 percent in January of 2012 (the bottom of the market in terms of national home prices).

Delinquencies by Bucket

While the overall share of underwater mortgages continues to decline, delinquency rates are increasing among the remaining negative equity mortgages.

For the severely underwater – 150 percent or higher current CLTVs – over three out of every four borrowers (77 percent) are delinquent.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Damn Cool Pics

Ashes to Ashes [Infographic]
Is Your Car Sending You Signals? [Infographic]
Last Name Combinations That Are Seriously Terrible
Zuhal Sengul, Turkish Air Hostess Was Fired For for being `too sexy'
These Are The 20 Most Corrupt Countries Around The World

Ashes to Ashes [Infographic]

Posted: 04 Dec 2014 12:01 PM PST

Fifty years ago, only a tiny fraction of Americans chose to be cremated after death. But cremation has become much more popular in recent decades, thanks in part to an increase in religious acceptance of the practice and economic factors.

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Via: Heritage Cremation Provider

Is Your Car Sending You Signals? [Infographic]

Posted: 04 Dec 2014 11:54 AM PST

Ignoring the warnings your car sends out could leave you stranded on the side of the road or with a costly repair bill. "The closer attention you pay to your vehicle, the more likely you are to detect small problems before they become bigger, more expensive problems," says Tony Molla, vice president of communications for the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE).

Check out the infographic below to learn some of the warning signs.

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Via: PA Window Tinting

Last Name Combinations That Are Seriously Terrible

Posted: 04 Dec 2014 11:42 AM PST

These happy couples have some of the most ironic and awful last name combinations ever created.

Zuhal Sengul, Turkish Air Hostess Was Fired For for being `too sexy'

Posted: 04 Dec 2014 10:51 AM PST

A sexy airline stewardess who showed off her curvy body in modelling shoots has been fired by Turkish Airlines.

Airline brass decided that Zuhal Sengul, 31, went a little too far in wearing far too little in a photo shoot with an Italian magazine, Metro.co.uk reported.