Anyway, I really enjoyed the press release video. It’s the classic Google schmoozing but I think It markets the new brand well. What do you think? Check it out here:

Google Place Marketing Video

Each facet of Google.com is at all times two steps ahead of its competitors. They’ve established themselves as one of the most valuable worldwide data mines, they’re API technology is yet to be matched by any other competitor, they’re Maps data is so comprehensive that you can even view Area 51 from a bird’s eye view. With Google street view, the fact that you can virtually walk from one place to another online may indicate that augmented reality isn’t so far away after all. It’s ubiquitous and futuristic, and the choke-hold that this technology has over the rest of the market is strengthening. Google Chrome, despite using Apple’s Safari browser technology, has produced some admirable competition amongst the big wigs of browsers. What about Google Apps? This business model has diverted over 25 million businesses away from Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes.

Google Maps is arguably one of Google’s most prized possessions, and biggest seed for growth on the search engine’s path to into local search and mobile search domination. It was only a matter of time before Google started cashing in on one of their most significant works to date. Australia looks to be the guinea pig to test the fiscal outcomes of the new Maps venture. It’s all very exciting, but does this actually signify the end of the online paid directory for anything other than linkbait?

Hotfrog.com.au is Australia’s largest independent online directory, but even Hotfrog makes a vast majority of their revenue from Google AdSense and bases their location data on the Google Maps API. It really is a working example of how Google AdSense, in conjunction with Google Maps, has set up the search engine giant for greater influence. But will sites such as Hotfrog continue to make a profit off Google AdSense through their high amount of site traffic? Unlikely.

Unless Google gives an independent directory a “leg-up” in search, these independent businesses are going to suffer as a result of the trend shift towards Google Maps. Look at TrueLocal and the YellowPages, they’ve got nothing to worry about… But why? You would think that the Yellow Pages would be sweating buckets in the digital age with their phone books having more use now as drink coasters, arm rests and booster seats for short people rather than for locating local businesses. In my optinion, the Yellow Pages have covered their tails well here. They are well networked with Sensis, one of Google’s primary data sources for Australian business information.
TrueLocal on the other hand, despite being networked with Yahoo! Australia’s online search directory, are still closely networked with Google as it appears to favour the business directory as a “trusted source”. You would think that a business directory that is relatively new to the game would suffer, but luckily for them they’ve had the financial prowess of News Ltd. to back their venture.

With Google now planning to sell branded ad-space on Google Maps, the game just got interesting. Businesses, big and small, will now have the incentives to go to Google’s Local Business Directory directly. The implications for the smaller business directory websites here is that unless they can achieve Google’s trust, they will not have the backbone necessary to sell their service as a local business directory. After all, why would a business want to buy into a service that isn’t recognised by the biggest search engine in existence?
Welcome to Google’s inner-circle of local business directories. The game of local search is rapidly becoming the game of Google Maps.

The notion is pretty simple to understand, we see it as a hybrid of the classic Street Directory advertisements with conventional PPC cost schemes where the company will be charged based on an agreed number of impressions. Check out this example that we managed to snap of the National Australia Bank in Sydney:

The branded logos pinpoint the location of the advertisers’ store locations, sort of like the McDonalds logos in the old UBD street directories… Anybody remember these?

The Google product manager mentioned that the idea has been conceived to make map references more useful to users by using the logos that they would see on the street. The intention of this is questionable, seeing as Google already have Maps street view to help users identify their destination before they get there. It could be a way of making the satellite view user friendly, but the agenda seems to be for pure profit in our opinion. The new scheme has been expressed as non-relative to the existing local search listings, rather it will work alongside them. Removal of local search listings would have a devastating impact for SMEs, and although Google don’t plan on neglecting local search, does this new development indicate that they may be planning to cash in on basic business directory listings?

Either way, keep an eye on this development because if successful, it could be redefining Google Maps for local businesses.

Firstly, you’ll need to search for your listing and then claim it as the business owner. Google pulls it’s Australian data from trusted sites such as truelocal.com.au and yellowpages.com.au – if you are already listed on truelocal, then you should already have a listing in existence. The search engine will allow you to ‘claim’ you listing as a business owner, so you can manually edit and optimize your listing with more content.

When you are confirming a listing, you will be prompted through a confirmation process either over the phone, via mobile text or via a mailout. Once you have claimed a listing as a business owner, you can update it whenever you want at your own discretion simply by logging in to the google local business center.

Now, there is a lot of speculation as to what actually affects a Google Maps rank. In order to elucidate any myths or rumours you may have been hearing, let’s take a look at what Google’s Business Listing Quality Guidelines have to say:

“Business Listings in Local Business Center must have correct information about physical, local businesses, as they appear in the real world.”

1. This is the most common ranking factor misconstrued by many users simply wishing to manipulate the Google Maps algorithm in order to achieve a rank in the infamous “top seven” maps listings in the first pages of search. Based on the above, the fact remains:
   Your business must be registered at a physical address. Where Google obtains this data remains undisclosed, but know that they do have the information that indicates to them that a specified address is one registered as a business. This also implies that your business must have a physical mailing address – Google has made it clear that it will no longer accept PO boxes for local business listings.
2. URL – You should be using a URL that best identifies your individual location, this means that your URL should be a unique domain, registered with a business, and reflect your brand name.
3. Phone numbers – Google is extremely stringent in pushing the phone confirmation process. This process involves manual validation by prompting a Google call and subsequently receiving a pin number. To do this, ensure that the number you are providing Google is a land-line and not a switchboard. If you confirm via mobile, be well aware that your personal number will be appearing in public search – this method of confirmation is generally not advised unless you run a mobile business. Do not select the postcard option unless you want to wait 2 weeks to confirm your listing!
4. Customize your listing – A claimed listing goes along way, Google makes it clear that an owner-verified listing, that factors in all of the above, receives a favourable ranking in local search. But this is still only one piece of the pie. You want your Google local business listing to be performing at its peak.
   • Once your listing is owner verified – Go back into the Google local business center, double-check that your listing declares 100% completion. Make sure you have a diverse range of media in your listing: both images and video. Upload the images and video from a location on the web if possible.
   • Check your business categories – everything must be niche relevant, if you’re running a plumbing business, make sure you’re in the “plumbing” category. Pretty basic stuff, but it’s easy to miss.
   • Reviews – Trusted review sites are becoming a quintessential part of Google’s plans for local search development. Don’t know what “trusted Google sites” apply to your business niche? Do some competitor research. Search for your competitors on Google Maps, are they receiving any reviews from external websites? If they are, make sure your business is listed on those websites before confirming your Google listing.

We’ve tested this code on the Websalad Facebook fan page and we’re eagerly awaiting the next update of our Analytics account, so in the meantime please go easy on us! To spare you the grief of reading through an entire blog article, here’s the simplest way to set up GA for your Facebook Fan Page:

1. The first requirement is that you have a custom landing page implemented – if you don’t, I suggest you download Static FBML and get cracking.
2. Assuming you already have a Google Analytics account, create a new website profile for Facebook. Name it as Facebook.com or Facebook.com/custom_page_URL. You will then be given the standard tracking code that looks like: UA-2582437-1
3. Create your own custom image tag for page you want to track, note that you can only insert the code where there are instances of FBML. If you want to track you news feed, you can always insert a static FBML box however we haven’t tested this as of yet. For starters, you’re best to try this on your custom FBML landing page. Use the Web Digi Google Analytics Generator to generate your tag.
4. Add the image tag to the bottom of your FBML code on the fan page you want to track – then sit back and wait for the update.

Hats off to the guys at WebDigi who unearthed this beauty, it’d definitely be cool to see it work.

Stay tuned as we’re going to update this post once we receive our Analytics update – Enjoy!

Link building always comes with the underlying threat of penalisation, but the game itself is actually easier than you think, and funnily enough, the answer is right in front of you: work with the search engine and take its side when constructing your inbound link network. Search engines give more reward to an organic link structure, as they recognise the difficulty of obtaining organic links as well as the scarcity. A search engine views organic links as a key indicator of your website’s popularity. So the question is, how can you as a website owner build a polished inbound link network consisting entirely of natural links?

Here are a few factors you need to consider when building a link network full of digital relics and rubies:

1. Go natural with your links – This one is blatantly obvious and reiterates the above point. Search engines value organic links, and disregard artificial links. A natural link structure is one that maintains the following characteristics: the inbound anchor link text varies, there is only a gradual increase in the number of inbound links, the website only links outbound to reputable websites and there are barely any reciprocal links. So what are artificial links? Firstly, all anchor text links are normally identical, secondly the inbound link count displays drastic increases in a short period of time. What else? Oh yeah, the outbound links suck – often linking out to satellite websites that no-one cares about (nor does Google for that matter) and a high percentage of the links pointing inbound are reciprocal… Indicating to the search engine that there has been some sort of exchange taking place – not good at all. Artificial links are like steroids… They inject massive growth into the website, and will perhaps contribute to some short term success, only to have the panel of Google bots knock them back to a position worse from which they started… And in the world of search, redemption is hard.
2. High authority links > Life - Rather than aimlessly shooting for links, do some research into the authority of a website and its popularity. One singular link with a website with, let’s say, a Google PageRank of 7 is more likely to be of more benefit than 5 links from a website that has a PageRank of 3. And hey, if you’re capable of scoring links with a super high PageRank then in my opinion, you’re badder than Bear Grylls himself!
3. Link relevance - I bet you’ve read this everywhere, and you’re reading it now, and you’re sick of reading it but for some reason you can’t look away… It’s kind of hypnotic isn’t it? HA! It’s true though, as clichéd as it is. When scouting the web for link opportunities, you should aim for trusted sites (sites that have been around for a while, normally with a Page Rank of 5 >) that are topically relevant. If your website sells ice to eskimos, then aim to score some links in some online innuit communities.
4. Referring pages should only have a couple of links – In a perfect world, high authority domains would provide a link to your site and your site only. Unfortunately it just doesn’t happen this way. If you do score a link-back from a nice, hearty domain then make sure that the domain is being liberal on the link juice. When a website lists too many outbound links, regardless of the site authority, securing a link from said website is virtually pointless because your link value will be diluted and shared by the other sites. You wouldn’t pour yourself a watered down cup of cordial, would you? Treat your inbound links with the same regard, otherwise you’re going to end up like junior over here when you find out that all of your hard work account for nothing.
5. Site-wide links – If you can secure yourself a site-wide link… Say, on a blogroll with a hundred pages or so, then you’re luckier than Falcor the magical luckdragon. Honestly though, you’ve got to be extremely cautious with this sort of stuff. If you secure a site-wide link and that website already has an excessive amount of cached pages in existence, then your link count is going to explode and your domain is going to be penalised. If you want a natural blog-roll link, secure the link early whilst the blog is still in its prenatal stages. This way, your link count will only increase incrementally with each new blog post – Google sees nothing wrong with this!
6. Incoming link URL format – promoting 5 or so different home page URL variations is not good practice – you’re actually doing yourself more harm than good here because you’re effectively diluting the link value. For example:
   • http://websalad.com.au
   • http://websalad.com.au/
   • http://www.websalad.com.au
   • http://www.websalad.com.au/
   • http://www.websalad.com.au/home

   All mean the same thing! It just means that you’re sharing the link value across different variations and it’s doing nothing in your favour. Choose one inbound link format and stick to it. As for external sites linking to your homepage, unfortunately you will have no control as to how they set their URLs. If a website does link to your page via a different variation, it mightn’t hurt to send them a suggested destination URL.

7. Keyword anchor text links – Common sense! Pass on the link value via target keywords. Obtaining keyword links in directories is hard to obtain, but there’s nothing stopping you from targeting niche forums and blogs. One thing to note, make sure there is a diversity of keywords in your link network. Linking to the same keyword over and over will trip a spam filter.
8. Go Deep – Try to aim for at least 40% of your links to be pointing to pages deeper within your website other than the home page. The idea with deep links to have the external link pointing to a page within your website that is more content related.
   
9. No Follow Links suck – No follow links are common SEO knowledge, however if you’re new to this it might save you a lot of trouble in future to know. A few years ago, Google implemented a html attribute entitled link rel=”nofollow” – the purpose of this attribute is simple, to render your link effort useless to the search engine. This tactic was deployed to remove the spamming incentive to drop links in any random internet domain. When you’re looking for links back to your website, it is imperative that these links are what we like to call “do follow”, it just means that the rel=”nofollow” attribute hasn’t been applied to your links and you’re still getting the Google juice. If you have Firefox, might I recommend that you try the “search status” toolbar. It has a nice little “nofollow” link identifier that can save you a lot of trouble!

Where to get started…

Now, reading the above information is all fine and dandy but it might be a little bit overwhelming and at times vexing if you’re trying to do it all yourself. The link building game is one giant, time-consuming puzzle. There are billions of pages on the internet, so if you have a vacated look on your face it’s easily justified. If you’re looking for places to start then you might want to try some of the following:

Directory Listings – Directory websites are perhaps the most boring sites in existence, but their purpose is extremely useful to build up your inbound link count. There are millions of online directories, but as long as you assess each directory website with the above criteria it should make the selection process a hell of a lot easier. Here are some of the web’s premier directories (be aware that some of these are paid directories):

• Local –
• Hotfrog.com.au
• Diggyguide.com.au
• Localbusinessguide.com.au

• Web-wide –
• DMOZ.org
• Joeant.com
• Dir.yahoo.com
• Business.com
• Botw.org
• Skaffe.com

Niche forums and communities – Do a bit of research into the social communities surrounding your target niche. An easy way to isolate relevant blogs and forums is to utilize the “show options” feature on the Google search bar, then refine the search based on what you want to target accordingly – as seen in the below example:

Thanks for reading, we hope you found this post helpful. Until the next time, adios!

1. Keep your SEO tactics to yourself – All it takes is one bitter blog reader, affiliate or competitor to issue a complaint to Google detailing the nature of your SEO tactics. For example, John Chow (author of JohnChow.com) – a blogger of considerable notoriety, openly discussed on his blog how he asked bloggers to link back to his blog with an anchored keyword. The end result? Google laid down the hammer and it took him over a year to regenerate a decent Page Rank.
2. Don’t over-optimize your site with target keywords – Google indexes everything according to relevance, and not only this, it also has filters in place to nullify any keywords or phrases that have been aggressively targeted in landing pages or in meta tags. How to avoid this? Be liberal. Make your content relevant, and ensure that the application of your keywords isn’t too over-bearing. Take an outsider’s perspective – if someone can read your text and easily identify and keyword repetition, Google most certainly will act the same way. The key is to work with Google, and not against it.
3. Don’t sculpt your Page Rank using tag attributes – Namely, the ‘rel=nofollow’ tag attribute, Google has since decided to disregard the value of this tag and for quite a valid reason. It was being used to nullify link authority and re-direct link juice to target landing pages – known more formally as ‘page rank scultping’. Some companies still choose to manipulate this tactic, but we recommend that it is something you should avoid – this technique is tired and highly temperamental.
4. Artificial link profiles – Google filters out sites if their link profiles match any of the following criteria:
   • Links are too close together, or similar links recur through your page frequently.
   • The anchor text of all of your links is identical (they all re-direct to the same landing page).
   • You’re links aren’t deep enough to other pages
   • Links are low quality and irrelevant to the site content
   • If there are sidebar and footer links – these rank poorly.
   • Too many reciprocal links

Don’t try and manipulate Google’s search algorithm, as you will be quickly identified and neutralized!

Right, so it sounds a little bit scarier than it actually is, but it’s not worth taking the chance.

5. Finally, a common sense practice – Don’t use SEO to promote spammy websites! Adhere to the guidelines, and work with the Google algorithm.