It’s no secret that Google hates link trades and it seems that most of the top SEO pros think Google can’t tell if a link is a bought, sold or legitimate link. This really stuffs up Googles rankings which are influenced by links and the link text pointing to the site which is why many webmasters are buying up.

Google says they don’t mind websites have sponsored links providing they include the no-follow tag so they know not to count that as a vote for the site being linked to. That’s enough of that as I’m sure you have already read thousands of other blog posts about link selling and it is becoming a rather boring subject. What I noticed today was an interesting addition to Google’s homepage. Google has added a link for StumbleUpon reviews. See image below.

I only got this link when using Firefox and was logged into my Gmail account. When you click on the link you are taken to StumbleUpon where you can sign in to your Gmail account and see which friends are already using StumbleUpon and you can even invite the rest of your friends.

It seems to me, Google is looking for ways to combat link selling by moving towards a user based review system. I’m not sure if this is going to help them combat link selling because there is always someone out there who will find a way to game the system. We humans love to break rules and we do it almost in every we do. One example is that our sports people are often found for breaking the rules with performance enhancing drugs. People love to break the rules and find an edge and regardless of what Google does, someone, somewhere will find a way to game the system.

It’s interesting to see where Google is going with this and I’ll keep my eyes and ears open for any further developments.

I don’t know if it’s just me, all webmasters or the general population but I’m pretty much fed up with thinking about what I do to market a web site and always wondering if the site was going to take a dive in the rankings. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time doing client SEO work, maybe it’s all that reading of Aaron Walls SEOBook that is changing my world view of Google or maybe it’s just because I’m ready for something refreshing in a search engine.

There was once a time when the big G was loved and everybody had something positive to say but these days it’s a big downward spiral in the number of Google supporters and i’m already on the slippery dip on my way off this ride. It kind of reminds me of how I felt about Microsoft many years ago. I really liked Microsoft and always told people how great they were but after using Windows for so long I got tired of the same old thing, the viruses, the same old applications and needed something fresh so I switched to Apple and right now I’m really enjoying it until that day that it comes time for a change again and owning a Mac just becomes unthinkable. That could be sometime away because right now I’m really loving it!

So what is it that makes us want to change? For me it’s about the lack of innovation and loyalty of a companies user base. It’s that we don’t need you attitude and you’ll do as your told rubbish! Would the G be as profitable as they are without us users? But this is nothing new, it’s a natural evolution of the things that need to happen and even though it’s hard to imagine Google falling from grace I think there will be a day when they won’t be so high and mighty any more.

Unfortunately right now there isn’t much alternative but in any case I’ve now switched to Yahoo for most of my searches. If we give Yahoo some love, maybe just maybe we can inspire them and give them enough motivation to do something remarkable. With every passing day the G light dims and the opportunity for someone to take their place gets even better. Will it be Wikia Search the open source search engine that does the G in? What do you think?

If you have ever followed the timing and updates of PageRank that we have all come to know and love, you’ll know that it has been as of writing this approx 177 days since the last toolbar PR update. The update was expected based on previous timings to be around July 21 but that hasn’t happened and we are all still waiting to see when the update will occur.

This well overdue delay has caused speculation that Google may in fact be dumping PageRank all together which kind of seems like a strange thought that that little green bar may be gone forever. I personally have got used to looking at the PR of sites to get a quick idea of how Google values the quality of the site.

How will the disappearance of the the PR rating affect how link trades are done on the web? The PR ranking has no doubt been a major factor in the buying, selling and trading of links since we all discovered that having higher PR links to your site was better for rankings than lower PR sites. Do you think this is the reason that Google wants to shake up the SEO world by dumping this indicator which has become the thorn in their side.

Initially I think if Google drops the PR indicator there will be a short shake up as web master everywhere start to work towards a new currency of measurement that will be replace the PR rating. The Alexa ranking seems to be a common indicator for assessing a web sites value but this has been know to be inaccurate particularly in the web master community.

There is still much rumor and speculation about whether this is true or not but even if it was I’d say goodbye PageRank! Next!

You may have noticed that Google has recently made some changes to the keyword tool in Adwords and one of the things that has gone AWL is the negative keyword tool. I really used to love that little bugger too as I found it very useful in quickly finding keywords that may be generating excessive impressions.

Fortunately there is no need to panic… not yet anyway I thought I’d shoot off an email to Google and see what was happening and what I could do now to find negative keywords quickly. According to Google the negative keyword tool is going to be rolled out again in a bigger better and shinier version which some adwords accounts would have seen during a trial of the keyword tool having a negative keywords tab.

I’m not really sure why the old negative keyword version had to go before the new rollout but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes. Here is Google’s suggestion as an alternative whilst the new keyword tool is rolled out.

You may have noticed that your AdWords account’s Keyword Tool no longer has a ‘Negative Keywords’ tab. We
have intentionally removed this tab from all AdWords accounts. Please be assured that the Keyword Tool is otherwise unaffected.

In our commitment to bring you the latest innovations in online advertising, we often release features that are still under development. One of these features was the ‘Negative Keywords’ tab, which had appeared in a certain percentage of AdWords accounts. As often happens with new features, we are going to make a round of adjustments based on the performance data that we have collected. The tab will be unavailable during this time.

We’re eager to re-release the ‘Negative Keywords’ tab in the future. In the meantime, we recommend using the Search Query Performance report to identify any irrelevant search queries that have triggered your ads. Then, add these terms as negative keywords per the instructions at https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6635&hl=en_US.

Learn to run a Search Query Performance report at https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=68034&hl=en_US.

If you have additional questions, please visit AdWords Support at https://adwords.google.com.au/support, where you’ll find the answers to many of our frequently asked questions.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

I’ve tried the suggested method and I don’t really like it. It might be a short term fix but I find it time consuming and not as effective. You’ll have to hold your breath while the new negative tool is being rolled out which hopefully isn’t too long.

I mentioned this earlier in this post about Googles keyword analysis tool. Well it’s been rolled out here in Australia. It’s a nice addition by Google to add this which will make lighter work of improving your campaign and understanding what is causing you any issues.

Here’s what happens now when you rollover the magnifying glass icon. It gives you a more detailed overview that what we had before with links to more detail.

Here is the ad showing link details. It has all your keyword details and gives some indications of quality score for keyword relevance and landing page relevance.

He is the ad showing details link. Again more detail than Google used to provide and is much easier than having to go to the tools menu to trouble shoot your keywords and ads problems.

If you are in the search engine marketing game, I’ll bet you’ve heard that line from clients hundreds of times and if your like me, your SICK of it!

Google, Google, Google! This seems to be what the majority of business people think they need to succeed in their business model. Hey, I’m slightly anti-Google but that’s because those OO’s in Google just stare at me for hours most days of the week. In Australia we get a lot of search marketing success stories from the USA which Australians then expect Google search to provide the never ending traffic and leads from being ranked number one for a competitive search term.

The main issue here is that Australia has a population of 20 million people in a land area of 7617930 km² compared to the USA with 301 million people in a land area of 9161923 km². You do the math! Australia’s population is spread around the coastline with the middle of Australia collecting dust! So with only 20 million people over such a vast land area you need to keep your marketing more focussed as not many people are going to drive 4 days across Australia to buy a coffee with muffins if that’s your business is marketing.

Google is no silver bullet and it won’t be the reason your business succeeds however if combined with the rest of your marketing strategy, it can be a huge bonus to your marketing plan. From my experience, businesses who have built a strong brand tend to have better results in search marketing.

If you want to be number one on Google, build a brand and market that brand. Do this consistently and you will start to see results whether it’s search marketing or traditional off line marketing or a combination of both.

As an SEO consultant, I receive the Google Agency Newsletter which is a new thing that Google is pushing to help agencies sell more Google services. One area of improvement that is being rolled out in Adwords is a new tool called the Keyword Analysis page. This keyword analysis page will give a deeper look at the quality score of your keywords. If you’ve never used Google Adwords, your keywords are ranked for quality depending on how relevant they are to your landing page, ad text and other keywords in your ad group. The keyword analysis page tool will identify what key areas are causing the keyword to be poor quality so that it will be easier to improve it. This is what Google says it does in the agency newsletter

The Keyword Analysis page is a new feature within AdWords that provides information and recommendations about a keyword’s Quality Score. For example, the Keyword Analysis page can tell an advertiser that their keyword’s Quality Score is low because of landing page, ad text, or poor performance.

Now I’ve tried everything to find this page but for the life of me I just couldn’t find it using Google’s instructions again from the newsletter.

This page can be accessed using the magnifying glass next to each keyword within an AdWords account. After clicking through to the new page, advertisers will see two tabs: “Ad showing?” and “Quality Score.” Clicking on the
“Quality Score” tab will show helpful information on the keyword’s Quality Score and recommendations on how to improve it if necessary.

I don’t know if this has been rolled out anywhere else in the world but it’s not in my Adwords account here in Australia, however I am looking forward to seeing how to get the most out of this tool which should make it easier to make the best changes to your campaign and drive your click costs even lower.