Friday, December 30, 2016

SearchCap: Happy New Year’s, Santa tracker & Google’s new recipe results

searchcap-header-v2-scap

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

Local & Maps

Link Building

Searching

SEO

SEM / Paid Search

Search Marketing

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Search Engine Land’s most engaging stories of 2016: A whole lotta Google

sel_yir_2016_1920x1080_genI wasn’t exaggerating with that title. Sure, we cover a lot of Google-related news here on Search Engine Land, but now it can be definitively stated that it’s (in part) because that’s what you, our readers, crave.

We tallied all of the likes, favorites, shares, clicks, retweets and so on for every single social post across the Search Engine Land Facebook and Twitter communities over the past 12 months. Out of the top 10 most socially engaging stories across those communities — 20 stories in total — only ONE was not about Google. (Even the honorable mention in the Twitter roundup was from the Google Dance earlier this year during SMX West. It literally was our 7th most popular tweet of 2016. Scroll down and have a watch. You’ll see why.)

From AdWords updates to algorithm changes, the arrival of Expanded Text Ads to the sunsetting of PageRank score… there was a lot going on with the Big G this year. Let’s take a look back at the issues and announcements that scored the most social engagement across the board. (Catch up with all of our Search Engine Land Year In Review stories, while you’re at it!)

Search Engine Land’s Most Social Tweets Of 2016

1. Google officially throttling Keyword Planner data for low spending AdWords accounts — by Greg Finn, August 13

2. Confirmed: Google To Stop Showing Ads On Right Side Of Desktop Search Results Worldwide — by Matt McGee, February 19 (This story actually made the list three times. Three different tweets promoting this story throughout the week of publication ranked on the top 10 list, so… it’s kind of a big deal.)

3. RIP #Google PageRank score: A retrospective on how it ruined the web — by Danny Sullivan, March 9

4. Moz trims product line to focus on search, lays off 28% of staff — by Barry Schwartz, August 17

5. Google expanded text ads are live, and device bidding & responsive ads for native roll out — by Ginny Marvin, July 26

6. Google is completely redesigning AdWords: Offers first peek — by Ginny Marvin, March 28

7. Google’s New SERP Layout: The Biggest Winners & Losers — by Larry Kim, February 24

8. Saying a third of mobile searches are local, Google brings “Promoted Pins” to Maps — by Greg Sterling, May 24

9. Everything you need to know about Google’s “Possum” algorithm update — by Joy Hawkins, September 21

10. The real impact of Google’s new paid search ad layout on organic search — by Winston Burton, March 28

Honorable Mention

Because obvi.

Search Engine Land’s Most Social Facebook Posts Of 2016

1. Confirmed: Google To Stop Showing Ads On Right Side Of Desktop Search Results Worldwide — by Matt McGee, February 19

2. Google Panda Is Now Part Of Google’s Core Ranking Signals — by Barry Schwartz, January 12

3. Google Had A Major Core Ranking Algorithm Update This Past Weekend — by Barry Schwartz, January 12

4. Google has confirmed it is removing Toolbar PageRank — by Barry Schwartz, March 8

5. Google is completely redesigning AdWords: Offers first peek — by Ginny Marvin, March 28

6. Google expanded text ads are live, and device bidding & responsive ads for native roll out — by Ginny Marvin, July 26

7. Everything you need to know about Google’s ‘Possum’ algorithm update — by Joy Hawkins, September 21

8. Google+ Accounts No Longer Required For Leaving Local Reviews In Google — by Barry Schwartz, April 4

9. Study: Quality Backlinks & Comprehensive Content Are Still Biggest Factors In Google Rankings — by Greg Finn, January 20

10. iPhone Users, The AdWords App For iOS Has Arrived — by Ginny Marvin, January 28

Methodology: Top tweets were identified by native Twitter analytics. Top Facebook posts were identified using Simply Measured analytics.

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A year in review: Search Engine Land’s top 10 columns of 2016

sel_yir_2016_1920x1080_gen

Expanded text ads. Mobile-first index. Accelerated Mobile Pages. Possum. These are just a few of the many words and phrases we search marketers became intimately familiar with over the course of the past year.

Both within the search industry and outside of it, 2016 was a year marked by change — and no change got more attention from our columnists than Google’s decision to eliminate the right rail ads from its desktop search results. Readers were clearly eager to learn as much as possible about how these changes would impact their campaigns, as two of our top 10 columns were focused on this topic.

The local search community also dealt with some major changes, as the Possum update caused a huge shake-up within local search results. Local search expert Joy Hawkins wrote the definitive article on this unannounced Google update, which impacted up to 64 percent of local SERPs. Her excellent coverage of this development earned her the top spot in 2016.

After the emotional roller coaster that was 2016, many people are ready for this year to be over. But for those of you brave enough to want to relive it, here are Search Engine Land’s top 10 columns of the year:

  1. Everything you need to know about Google’s ‘Possum’ algorithm update by Joy Hawkins, published on 9/21/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 2,931, Google+ 492, LinkedIn 1798
  2. 7 essential Google Analytics reports every marketer must know by Khalid Saleh, published on 5/30/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 1,727, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 2863
  3. How To Get Started With Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) by Paul Shapiro, published on 2/24/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 632, Google+ 194, LinkedIn 524
  4. Top 9 reasons Google suspends local listings by Joy Hawkins, published on 4/21/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 855, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 794
  5. How To Localize Google Search Results by Clay Cazier, published on 1/13/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 622, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 393
  6. Google’s New SERP Layout: The Biggest Winners & Losers by Larry Kim, published on 2/24/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 751, Google+ 196, LinkedIn 1234
  7. Infographic: 11 amazing hacks that will boost your organic click-through rates by Larry Kim, published on 10/5/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 1086, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 821
  8. Test Your Knowledge Of SEO by Eric Enge, published on 1/5/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 900, Google+ 189, LinkedIn 594
  9. HTTP to HTTPS: An SEO’s guide to securing a website by Patrick Stox, published on 4/14/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 962, Google+ 219, LinkedIn 619
  10. Google’s Take On The Recent Changes To The Results Page by Matt Lawson, published on 3/2/2016
    Social activity: Facebook 627, Google+ 168, LinkedIn 944

Methodology: Columns published in 2016 are ranked in order of page views measured by Google Analytics. Data includes all columns published through November 30, 2016. Social data provided by SharedCount.

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4 steps to make your organic listings more effective

depositphotos_71817649_m-2015You’re a savvy digital marketer. You follow Google best practices and read “all the SEO blogs.” You sound like a zookeeper with your extensive knowledge of Pandas, Penguins, Possums and Pigeons. You’re always looking for ways to improve organic search rankings. Instead of investing your time researching some of those gray (or even black) hat tactics that are oh so tempting, I suggest you take a step back and look at the basics of your organic SERP listing.

An area that often gets overlooked by digital marketers is engagement and the click-through rate (CTR) associated with their organic listings. No matter how much you improve your ranking, if your listing itself is not compelling, it’s all for nothing!

Google has not confirmed that CTR is a direct ranking factor, but this slide from a Google engineer at SMX West in March 2016 suggests that click-through rate plays a significant role.

Regardless of Google’s ranking algorithm, all digital marketers strive to make organic listings compelling to searchers and enticing to prospects. These recommendations will help you improve organic search results and drive additional qualified traffic.

Step 1: Identify pages with a relatively low click-through rate

In Google Analytics, navigate to Acquisition > Search Console > Landing Pages and export the data into a CSV or Excel document. Identify pages with high Impressions, a low Average Position and a relatively low CTR based on position.

AdvancedWebRanking.com has a great study on average CTR by position that you can use as a guide. This analysis will help you create a list of prioritized landing pages to be improved.

Step 2: Find opportunities to expand title tags

One of the best things you can do to increase the CTR for a listing is improve the effectiveness of the Page Title. Back in 2014, Google changed the Title Tag limit to be based on pixel length (estimated to be 512px) which resulted in a significant reduction in organic Title Tag width. In May of this year, SEOs everywhere rejoiced as Google expanded this limit to 600px, a 17 percent increase!

Take advantage of this increased space and the opportunity to include more high-priority keywords (if you haven’t already). An easy way to view your current Meta Tags is to download them from the free Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool.

The challenge is that the new pixel-based limit is harder to adhere to and more difficult to visualize than a simple character count. For example, a “W” takes up more space than an “l.” It’s all about size now, not number of characters. As you’re improving and expanding your Meta Tags, I recommend using a SERP Preview Tool. This will help you visualize how your listing (URL, Title and Description) will appear on a Google SERP.

After the Google SERP update in May, we noticed that popular SEO tools had not been updated to reflect the new guidelines, so we created our own Google SERP Tool to help SEO experts visualize the new, expanded pixel limits.

Step 3: Make your meta tags more compelling

The best Page Titles are often written like a newspaper headline. They are intriguing, interesting, descriptive, and often evoke emotion. Here is an example of two boring headlines and one compelling/engaging headline that really stands out.

killer-serp

Title Tag tips

It’s still crucial to have target keywords in your Title Tag, but don’t ignore the importance of engaging prospects. Optimize for user intent first, and SEO keywords second. Here are a few proven tips for Title Tags:

  • If your web page provides a list of some sort, state the number of items. For example: 17 Delicious Broccoli Recipes Your Kids Will Love
  • Mention if the page includes a video or a presentation. For instance: 10 Reasons Why The New Macbook Stinks w/Video Review
  • Special characters stand out, but don’t go overboard.
  • Mention pricing or sales numbers.
  • Timely/relevant content is key. Provide a date. Example: The 12 Lightest Laptops Available in November 2017
  • Use a free headline analyzer such as: http://ift.tt/1FTT37C

Description tips

Don’t forget to have a compelling and descriptive Meta Description as well. Use your Meta Description to complement and expand upon your Title Tag statement. Be persuasive; encourage an action.

Since Meta Descriptions have no explicit SEO value (other than CTR), don’t be obsessive about forcing keywords into your Description unless they fit naturally. Most of all, inspire curiosity and entice searchers to click.

Step 4: Make your SERP jump off the page with rich snippets

The buzz for structured markup has quieted in the last few years, but this is a powerful strategy that should not be ignored. Rich snippets can really make your SERP jump off the page, increasing your CTR and stealing clicks right out of the hands of your competition.

Using structured markup properly can really make your products stand out. This example below shows powerful information such as star rating, number of reviews, price and if the product is in stock or not. That’s a lot of valuable information in the search engine results!

macbook-snippit

Using the Recipe structured markup can also be really powerful. In the snapshot below, you can see a large photo and most of the ingredients needed for a recipe. It really jumps off the page as the first result. For the second result, you notice the star rating, number of reviews, time to cook and, of course, a picture! Wow, that’s powerful.

Recipe reviews are so popular that if you’re not using them, you may not make the first page of Google. The good news is that there are a variety of WordPress plugins and free tools to help make implementation very simple.

recipe-snippet

Some other powerful rich snippets are breadcrumbs, music, (notable) people, video content and events. You can find a rich snippet to improve click-through rate for almost every page imaginable. Google has a great Guide to Structured Markup, a Testing Tool, and even a Data Highlighter to use structured markup from the Google Search Console without having to implement any code. There are no excuses for not using these free features!

Getting back to basics

Once you expand and enhance your Meta Tags, track progress in Google Search Console. Continue to test and improve your organic listing over time.

You might be shocked by the dramatic increase in organic traffic delivered simply by getting back to the basics of writing a unique, compelling and relevant Page Title and Description. Remember, your Meta Tag is the only thing standing between a search result and a visitor!

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Google’s New Year’s eve day logo for 2016

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New Year’s is just around the corner and Google has already posted their Doodle, a special Google logo, for New Year’s eve.

The 2016 Doodle has balloons mounted to a ceiling via a net. The balloons are jumping around, watching the clock, in anticipation for it to strike midnight and become 2017. The balloons have wide open eyes, blow horns and party favors and are all set to party for New Year’s.

Google wrote on their Doodle post:

Happy New Year’s Eve! All across the world tonight, we’re sharing the eager anticipation of counting down to midnight: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

A very special Happy New Year’s to all of you!

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Paradigm shift: Has Google suspended defamation removals?

Online Defamation

A number of attorneys who specialize in online defamation/libel cases have reported to me that Google has recently suspended its longstanding, informal policy of removing URLs from US search results that are specified in duly executed court orders. This poses a major paradigm shift for many victims of online reputation attacks.

Beginning around August or September of this year, a number of attorneys from across the US began receiving blanket denials after submitting requests to remove defamatory content from Google’s search results.

Since at least 2009, Google has had an informal policy of accepting many removal requests when accompanied by a properly executed court order specifying defamatory/libelous content at specific URLs. I’ve personally seen a number of cases where hundreds and even thousands of URLs have been submitted with court orders, and Google has removed those URLs from search results.

But they’ve now stopped. Not for every single request, but for a sufficient number that it’s clear something has changed.

Background: Search engines immune to libel removal demands

It’s worthwhile to note that search engines, and various other types of online sites and services, were made immune in the United States from liability for things like defamation/libel by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”). For hundreds of years of established law, publishers (such as of books and newspapers) could be held responsible for content published through them.

With the advent of the internet age, it was initially unclear how some types of websites should be categorized — were they publishers, and should therefore be held directly accountable for defamatory content, or were they merely distributors of others’ content, similar to libraries and bookstores, and should therefore not be considered liable for their content? There were concerns that categorizing all types of sites as publishers would potentially have a depressing effect on innovation and business in the nascent internet.

As the Digital Media Law Project states, in 1996, Congress elected to clarify any ambiguity and to simultaneously provide protection for many types of sites by legally defining them as not being publishers:

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

“interactive computer service” means any information service, system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server.

Most courts have held that through these provisions, Congress granted interactive services of all types, including blogs, forums, and listservs, immunity from tort liability so long as the information is provided by a third party.

Google’s help page for requesting removal of content cites Section 230 of the CDA for US users:

Google Defamatory Content Removal Request Form

Despite this signpost that outright states, “Google does not remove allegedly defamatory material from our search results…”, in practice, Google has long chosen to act upon court orders and removed libel and defamation from the search results (legally speaking, court orders identifying such content makes it no longer “allegedly”).

For victims damaged by false statements online, Google’s de facto policy of removing defamation from their results has been a godsend.

Google alters its policy around defamation removal requests

I spoke with multiple attorneys specializing in online defamation across the country, and they all report similar responses from Google recently where the company declined to act on requests to remove URLs listed in court orders. The responses for these included a brief statement reading:

“At this time, Google has decided not to take action.”

It’s not unusual for Google to sometimes push back on such requests in instances where a court order is not specific enough, where the legal work has been sloppy or where URLs are incorrect. But the current denial responses do not appear to be due to those types of protocol mistakes.

Some requests appear to be still undergoing reviews and consideration, and some related to prior removals appear to be still pending consideration. The door to defamation removals may not be completely closed. But some requests are simply being declined with no indication as to why. And they are the sorts of requests that were previously being reliably removed.

Why has Google decided to halt this practice?

We reached out to Google, but they have chosen not to make any official statement at this time. I’ve been informed that Google may still elect to act upon court-ordered libel/defamation removal requests if they choose, on a case-by-case basis. As their help page established, they consider themselves not legally obligated to do so.

For the professionals who assist companies and individuals with legal removals, the lack of explanation around the apparent policy-shift or process-shift is very disturbing, and makes it difficult to convey reasonable expectations to defamation victims. And, in many cases, lack of action on Google’s part will create greater hardship for victims, or will even eliminate any real recourse at all.

The abrupt change in policy has invited a lot of speculation.

I know from multiple past discussions with various search engine company insiders that they consider removals to be undesirably costly, and that materials published on others’ websites are not particularly their responsibility. Quoting what one insider once told me, “This is a project that does not make money for the company, and does not save money for the company, so it is a low priority.”

Electing to not take action on defamation removal requests seems in line with this. They are a business, and should not necessarily be motivated purely out of altruism, according to this line of thinking.

It is undoubtedly costly. Google processes thousands of URL removal requests and maintains staff dedicated to all types of legal removal reviews.

Removal requests may also be philosophically troubling in many instances. According to their Transparency Report, many removal requests citing defamation originate from government agencies and law enforcement. (Albeit, it seems likely that many of these removal requests may originate from countries that do not have as strong freedom-of-speech laws as found in the United States.)

Government Removal Requests for Defamation - Google Transparency Report

Perhaps Google is halting many US defamation removals to make a statement against censorship, here at the tail end of what could be the most rancorous political race in the world’s history.

It’s undoubtedly upsetting for fair-minded employees to be in the position of sometimes removing URLs that critique governments and politicians for countries where it may be deemed illegal to say negative things about officials. But this does not seem to explain what is going on here, since the requests being submitted do not appear to be unfair attempts to censor, but rather malicious and untrue attacks on individuals and companies.

Another explanation could be due to revelations from earlier this year that some unethical attorneys and reputation agencies have abused Google’s removal process and perhaps committed fraudulent actions in the process.

In the spring, Pissed Consumer reported that a number of suspicious lawsuits with purportedly bogus defendants were filed in California courts to obtain defamation court orders enabling URLs to get delisted by Google. In October, Pissed Consumer sued a reputation management company and attorneys that are alleged to be behind “sham lawsuits” and “stooge defendants” that were used to fool Google into removing undesirable consumer reviews.

It seems likely that the revelations around these abuses may have factored into the company’s decision to decline to act on some removal requests. Could it be that Google is now applying some more restrictive requirements around court orders that it will accept in the wake of the unethical manipulation?

Possibly. But, having reviewed some of these requests, I don’t see sloppiness or commonalities with the sorts of things that Pissed Consumer has complained of. If motivated by the abuses alleged by Pissed Consumer, Google could merely be starting to demonstrate that they are autonomous in their decisions about whether or not to remove something.

For the attorneys and their clients who are now failing to procure intervention on the part of Google after they have gone through ofttimes-lengthy and costly litigation processes, the abrupt apparent change in policy and lack of explanation are upsetting and confusing. Is this shift temporary? Should they continue to submit the requests again later? Should they modify the requests in some way? Does Google desire different verbiage in court orders now?

Google is currently silent on the matter. But the statements that Google will not take action may be communicating all that victims may now expect: Your removal requests may be futile.

Should search engines be immune from defamation removal demands?

To a very large degree, search engines have become the internet. If something is not indexed by Google or Bing, or it isn’t searchable and prominent within the search engines, it might as well not exist.

When people are seeking information about a subject, they turn to search engines. So, if the listings on the first page or two of search results contain false, negative and damaging items about a subject, this is where people are often most likely to encounter them. The search engines are the starting point, the gateway to the internet.

Being able to remove results directly from Google largely snaps the connection between the public and the libelous/defamatory content. This option has been the best path for obtaining relief for many victims in terms of comprehensiveness and speed.

Google’s suggestion that one should seek relief by going directly to a webmaster to get the damaging content removed at the source will not work for victims in many cases. If the originating site is also immune under the CDA, then one may not be able to get materials removed, and they will live on in the search results.

Consider Ripoff Report — a site that allows people to post any claims, false or otherwise, about individuals and companies, but does not allow people to subsequently delete what they wrote. Ripoff Report’s policy is to never remove materials, even where one has court orders establishing that content is completely false and defamatory.

Heretofore, one could obtain a court order to present to Google (read the definitive article on the subject, “How To Remove Ripoff Reports From Google — Not Just Bury Them“). Where sites like Ripoff Report are concerned, Google’s willingness to remove URLs with court orders has been the only source of relief available. The Section 230 protections of the CDA have resulted in many similar situations where no one may be legally required to correct or remove misleading and harmful materials.

In yet other cases, websites hosted in foreign jurisdictions may also be beyond the reach of victims based in the US; the internet is a global economy, and without a global solution for false and damaging libel, people simply can become harmed in perpetuity.

Few victims can afford to hire attorneys in other countries where defamation may be hosted, and some other countries may not provide the legal protections established through hundreds of years of tradition and precedent that are found in western countries. (Ironically, a person with dual US/EU citizenship might be able to legally require Google to remove damaging materials from being viewed by searchers within Europe, but not from searchers located within the United States.)

If the only solution available is to take court orders to the websites where defamatory materials are published and persuade them to remove the stuff, then costs increase for victims, as their attorneys or online reputation agencies must go to many sites to remove stuff, rather than to a single source.

I’ve seen multiple cases where defamatory content was spread across hundreds and even thousands of URLs. Instead of communicating with one entity, representatives must go to many, monitor them to see if they comply and follow up when they don’t.

Inevitably, removal of defamatory content will also take longer if Google does not assist. Even if you persuade an originating website to remove something, the listing for it and cached version of the page can live on in Google’s search results for months or even years, continuing to damage one’s reputation. (Professionals may also circle around to ask Google’s automated system to remove the URL due to the page being removed, or one may request the Googlebot to respider the page to update the cached copy to eliminate removed content.)

The human cost

Most people do not feel strongly about online reputation attacks. That is, until their own reputations become impacted by some negative things.

Those of us who work on these sorts of cases are aware that everyone is vulnerable to significant damage from misrepresentation. Many have a notion that they are good people, and therefore do not expect to have their reputations attacked in any way. But it only takes one obsessed customer. One crazy ex-girlfriend/boyfriend. One disgruntled employee.

Once someone libels you on the internet, there’s a very good chance that the materials may find their way up on the first page of search results. Many people make the mistake of thinking that if they avoid having much about themselves on the internet, their reputation and privacy are protected. But privacy and reputation are separate and frequently unrelated entities. So, when something negative gets published into the mix, it can abruptly become prominent.

Your data privacy is maybe intact, but your public reputation can be trashed. Even when one has a strong and established web presence, negative materials can often have an unfair advantage in rankings. Tomorrow, you can wake up and have your reputation ruined.

Online lies can be horrific to endure. They can be so malicious.

Imagine you’re the brilliant doctor who is falsely accused of malpractice. You are the business accused of being a scam and cheating your clients. You’re falsely accused of doing shoddy work. You’re accused of being a Mafia collaborator, a Nazi sympathizer, a pedophile, a nymphomaniac, a rapist or an adulterer. (This isn’t merely melodramatic hyperbole on my part — I’ve worked on cases where people were falsely accused online of each of these things.)

When the lie is the thing that defines your identity, then you lose business, your company fails, and you cannot make new relationships. It can affect everything about your life.

Defamation victims experience deep depression and sometimes consider suicide. Due to the frequency of psychological distress associated with online reputation issues, I interviewed a psychologist, and I refer my reputation clients to them. This stuff takes an extremely heavy toll on people. I’ve had clients who genuinely feared going out to restaurants because they had been accosted by people who had read and believed misrepresentation posted online about them.

In a completely opposite direction last year, Google announced that they would accept removal requests for revenge porn — without even a court order being required. However, a number of porn revenge victims I’ve assisted had instances of defamatory written statements on various web pages in addition to images and videos published to harm them. So, ironically, Google’s current policy shift will make it so that these victims can theoretically get their images taken out of search with just a note to Google, while related defamatory written content might not be removed, even with a court order.

If this new paradigm becomes status quo, the attorneys expert in these matters will likely halt assisting new clients, because there will be no way to reasonably predict positive outcomes, and risk of failure will be too high. If you’re defamed on Ripoff Report, which has over two million reports posted, you’ll be out of luck. Your only recourse in that case may be to change your name, as Google’s Eric Schmidt once infamously suggested. So, defamation victims in the future may find less legal representation available to assist them.

In multiple cases I’ve worked on, reputation attack victims were subjected to extortion. They were threatened that if they did not pay or do something demanded, then an individual would ruin their reputation online by posting falsehoods or private information about them. When they did not pay up, the extortionist followed through, harming them severely.

Here’s an example: “Convicted Search Engine Optimizer Indicted For Retaliating Against Former Victim.” While dramatic, this sort of case where the threat of online damage is used to extort people is not all that uncommon. In another example, one of Google’s own employees was arrested and convicted for attempting reputation extortion to compel women to send him nude photos.

By revoking recourse to have defamatory listings removed, Google will be effectively enabling more criminally minded people to use the search engine’s inflexibility as part of their extortion schemes. Google’s policy change is exposing the large legal loophole created by the CDA: One may launch terrifically damaging materials, and those can rocket up in visibility and never be removed.

Companies threatened by this may decide to simply pay up, rather than risk having to shutter, go bankrupt or lay off employees. It’s satisfying to have extortionists arrested and convicted, but from a business point of view, it’s a losing proposition if you can’t undo the evil damage that has torpedoed your company.

There’s always the “Eric Schmidt solution”: change your name. But changing one’s name to side-step online reputation damage is very costly, too — in terms of money and/or emotional currency.

If you’ve witnessed the costs for a company with a well-established brand name to change that name, you’ll know that this can be extensive and risky — replacing all signs, logos on letterheads, business cards, products, websites — all while losing the equity and recognition built in the name. I’ve also had a porn revenge victim that elected to change their name; it’s not an easy process, fraught with all sorts of issues you can’t foresee, and very difficult to explain to all who have known you by your original name.

Even when you go through a business name change, the loss of identity can sink your company. As I described in “When Brand Names Are Destroyed By Damaging Doppelgangers,” some companies don’t survive this process, since it’s like starting all over with an unknown name.

So, there’s nothing simple about a name-change, and one may not have the necessary amount of money on hand to even make that work.

Is Google liable? Or could the immunity of the CDA be revoked?

I’ve long thought that Google chose to act upon defamation removal requests out of a desire for self-preservation. I thought it was a calculated strategy both to avoid risks of legislature removing some of the immunity provided by Section 230 of the CDA and to reduce lawsuits that they might have to face from desperate people. The immunity provided by the CDA is a huge value to Google, and processing of defamatory removal requests is a relatively small price to pay.

It’s possible for the legislature to modify the Section 230 protection. As I described above, it has enabled situations where horribly damaging false content can be published, and there’s no effective way to help the victims.

It’s possible for legislators to wake up to this and to try to address the lacuna in the current laws. I think all it might take would be a handful of defamed children of congressmen and senators, and legislators might become very motivated to take action.

There is also the fact that the largest search engines are quite different in nature than smaller forum operators, and even the social media services. The search engines are not the equivalent of small libraries or booksellers (which are considered “distributors” and therefore not responsible for the content they have under offline defamation assessments); they are frequently the doorway of the internet.

And the search engines are large enough to be able to afford the costs and the scale of evaluating removal requests. Demonstrably, Google has been absorbing these costs for the better part of a decade, at least, while their stock value has consistently risen across this period. So concerns about absolving them from the costs of handling defamation are likely minor and irrelevant.

Assisting online attack victims should perhaps be considered the cost of success. The search engines bear responsibility for the policing of the internet by making themselves so very central to people’s online activities. They created this large, public marketplace, so they inherently bear some responsibility for it.

Why should they declare themselves responsible for making the internet faster, or for safeguarding privacy by browbeating webmasters into using SSL (secure sockets layer), or trying to make the internet more secure by flagging or suspending websites for malware — and then turn about to disavow any responsibility at all for defamatory content they index that destroys companies and lives? The omnipresence they’ve created means they must share some responsibility.

The search engines have to employ removal evaluation staff anyway, because they are also receiving many other types of legal removal requests, such as in instances of trademark infringement, copyright infringement and personal privacy issues. There has been something of an imbalance in how the US has provided a high level of immunity around defamatory liability to online distributors/publishers of third-party content, while simultaneously ensuring the interests of big business are represented by making those same types of sites handle copyright infringement claims.

There are also alternative options for addressing the costs, if that is the driving reason for suspending assistance. As I pointed out last year, it should be possible for Silicon Valley companies to set up a commonly supported online reputation clearinghouse that they could all utilize to share the evaluation costs.

Take-down requests could be sent to a single location, evaluated, and then acted upon by the major players in concert with one another. This would potentially save on costs for all of those companies and also reduce some costs for reputation attack victims. Sure, this requires a level of cooperation among big tech companies, but the rewards could be significant. Costs of evaluations of removal requests are not going away.

One attorney I spoke with stated that he would even be happy to pay a fee to Google for submitting removal requests. He acknowledged that there are costs involved for the search engines, and a handling fee might be reasonable — especially if the alternative is to lose any real substantive recourse.

There is a possibility that Google’s abrupt about-face on these requests may open them up to legal liability now, in spite of the CDA protections.

One might argue that Google’s long practice of honoring court-ordered defamation removals was an implicit acknowledgment of responsibility and liability for content presented through search results. Or a claim could be made on the basis of promissory estoppel — that attorneys and individuals have been reasonably assured by long practice that Google will remove content based upon court orders specifying defamatory content, and this abrupt and seemingly arbitrary suspension of that policy is wantonly damaging.

Some of the instances where Google denied take-down requests have happened after victims pursued months or years of litigation to obtain court orders, and they did this with the reasonable expectation that Google would take action. These people are arguably damaged because they based their decisions to litigate on Google’s years of consistent policy.

The timing for Google’s change in practice is surprising, because the legal climate around defamation laws is less certain right now. Back in February, Donald Trump made a campaign promise that he would “open up” libel laws, making it easier for famous persons to sue the press.

Even more recently, Melania Trump is involved in a defamation lawsuit, claiming the press and a blogger have made false and damaging statements against her. As things currently stand, it’s conceivable that Mrs. Trump could win her case, but if her defamatory content were replicated on sites like Ripoff Report and elsewhere, then the content could live on, easily accessible via Google search results.

Is it realistic that Trump might be able to change libel laws, and, if so, could it provide greater protections for all individuals or lessened immunity for web companies? It’s purely speculative, but the incoming administration definitely has a conservative philosophy about unfettered speech, and their party is in charge of both the Executive and Legislative branches of government. One has the feeling that they can enact any changes to the law that they might wish. And one can imagine they might be motivated if Mrs. Trump were to find herself balked subsequent to winning her case in court.

Conclusion: Inconclusive, for now

So, how should the online reputation management industry respond to Google’s recent de facto paradigm shift? Will they begin to grant such requests again, with the same level of consistency?

Some types of websites and online services will respond to court-ordered defamation removal requests. I suggest that one first send those court orders to every single site and ISP where defamatory material is specified.

After you’ve gotten as much removed at the website level as possible, then follow up with a submission of remaining URLs to Google, explaining you have attempted to get everything removed but you cannot do anything about the remaining URLs, and plead for them to take those last URLs out of search.

Please let me know if you are successful, and I may post a follow-up report later.

Likewise, if Google later responds, we will try to post an update on this article.

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Don’t just appeal to a local searcher’s wants or needs, focus on the journey

family-travel-journey-shopping-ss-1920Millennial travelers have been yearning for genuine, local experiences that deliver a special and unique taste of authenticity. They don’t want to merely cross an experience, city or place off a bucket list.

These travelers and searchers would like to experience life, while accidentally encountering experiences worthy of Snapchat stories, Instagram images and other forms of bragging, which are usually motivated by an honest urge to foster curiosity and cultural learning — or at least appear that way.

For millennials, there are a variety of options to satiate this type of hunger, including Airbnb, VRBO, asking Uber drivers for local recommendations, couch surfing and more. For marketers, offering services to these folks — opportunities to benefit from off-the-beaten-path journeys and trends — requires focus and attention, especially within the local search landscape.

The digitization of local search and its placement at a mobile traveler’s fingertips gives us local search marketers opportunities to outdo the traditional local search marketing approach.

From ride-sharing services like Uber to brick-and-mortar restaurants, companies have been working to make these customer-driven experiences a part of everyday optimization to better serve a stronger result within the local search space.

Creating a journey

Uber is a standout example. Jessica Williams, marketing manager at Uber, spoke at the Denver Digital Summit in 2016 to share stories of how Uber is revolutionizing the ride-sharing business to better appeal to this “journey-driven” rider.

Williams shared how Uber identified areas within riders’ regions that the riders had never visited. Uber would then surprise riders with offers of trips to specific locations (in the form of a free ride if the rider selected).

Uber would then transport the rider to the location and back during a time when that city had a fun or interesting event — free of charge. Technology had even advanced to ping riders during rides about deals happening nearby and around them — all adding to the seamlessness of local optimization.

Translating this concept to the SERP

Making a local listing a true standout in this space is challenging because of all the factors we cannot directly control. However, we do have influence through a variety of means to optimize for local SERPs by tapping into this new trend of consumers wanting each blip of a local visit to be part of a bigger story for themselves.

Dedicating a website page to an experience

It’s no secret that content is one of the main contributors to achieving prime positioning within the search engine results page. One major influence on rank is Google’s ability to connect the copy on your website to that of a searcher’s query.

Generating content on your site that speaks to these “experience-styled” searchers can give your website a boost by helping Google understand that you are delivering exactly what a searcher wants to be a part of.

Use your current website as an opportunity to sell an experience or journey, rather than a product. For some, like a travel agency, this can come easily, as you are already investing in website copy to appeal to an individual’s sense of adventure, relaxation or luxury.

However, for other industries — such as photography or retail — this is the perfect opportunity to continue driving people to your website, which, in turn, strengthens other main metrics that influence local search position.

Specific company examples

The town of Telluride, Colorado

When I Googled “Telluride Colorado” I was greeted with a built-out local listing and keyword-optimized navigation on the telluride.com website.

telluride-vacation

The point to be made from this experience is that if a company is optimizing for specific searches that aren’t exactly related to the company but are in tune with the impact of a particular journey that someone wants to experience, only then will the business be able to capture people within this phase of a search. Local searchers will then begin to mentally connect your business to the larger journey they are desiring to experience.

The Telluride website opitimizes and ranks for terms that fall into a searcher’s larger journey. Some keywords the site ranks for include: colorado things to do in the summer, pet-friendly colorado cabins, things to do in colorado during winter, fine dining guide, etc.

Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom

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The World Beer Tour, coined by Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom, is a rewards program for guests who are interested in tasting a wide range of beers from all over the world. When a consumer drinks 110 beers over the course of time, they earn a World Beer Tour sweatshirt and also have the bragging rights to claim they have consumed 110 different beers from all over the world, which Old Chicago sells.

Old Chicago has the opportunity to optimize for specific keywords that receive high volume, while also competing on a local level for individuals who want global beer knowledge and tastings to be part of his/her story. There is a market for beer consumers who want to try new things and are in need of a place to go to do it.

With some optimization, Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom can work toward strengthening on-page keywords, in addition to on- and off-page optimization to achieve a SERP click from consumers who integrate themselves with the beer market and tasting journey. Keywords that demonstrate a consumer journey are key to focus on. Terms including beer tasting experience, beer tasting expert, craft beer knowledge, learn about beer sum to an average search volume of 320/month within the United States.

With this scenario, Old Chicago is no longer simply selling food and beer; they can sell an experience of global beer tasting while reaping the benefits of improved local SERP positioning.

Make this trend in local search behavior work for you

We went through a couple of examples above of how you can make the adventure-seeking trend work for your specific businesses. The main things to keep in mind for any industry wanting to tailor to this change in local search behavior are:

  1. Brainstorm the bigger, more abstract picture for which your product provides a solution.
    • Example: selling windows translates to making a house a home.
    • Example: a spa/hair salon translates to being a sanctuary for busy people to finally relax and enjoy themselves.
    • Example: a bar translates into an environment for people to finally let loose and have fun with no judgment.
  2. Cater to the bigger picture and find where your business fits into that customer’s adventure and optimize for the adventure.

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Search in Pics: Google wine gift, holiday staircase & Google paradise store

In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.

Google Paradise store:

sri-google-paradise
Source: Instagram

Google holiday staircase:

google-holiday-staircase
Source: Instagram

Google wine gift:

google-wine-gift
Source: Instagram

Google Santa:

google-santa
Source: Instagram

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Thursday, December 29, 2016

SEO in 2017: Seizing opportunity, evangelizing success, achieving overarching growth

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As we begin 2017, the fusion of the search and content marketing disciplines has become increasingly more evident. A full 89 percent of B2B marketers (PDF) say that they use content marketing, as do 86 percent of B2C marketers, according to the Content Marketing Institute.

Additionally, over 70 percent of marketers in both groups plan on producing more content in the new year than they did in 2016. However, content only has real value if it is found and optimized, and if it converts with effective search marketing.

Search is the key driver that opens up opportunity in 2017

Research from BrightEdge (my company) found that 51 percent of traffic to websites comes from organic search. Additionally, another 10 percent comes from paid. This means that over 60 percent of the traffic on your site arrives from the search engine results pages (SERPs) alone.

While organic search is the primary driver of website traffic, the role of ads cannot be overlooked. Google has recently been taking initiatives to increase their prominence on the display page.

In early 2016, they eliminated the ads that once appeared along the sides of the SERP. Now, up to four ads may appear on the top of the page before the organic results. For some queries, this pushes the organic results below the fold.

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More changes may be ahead for PPC. There has been discussion about the prospect of Google introducing a paid result to the local 3-pack, leaving PPC to play an even larger role in local search. It has become nearly impossible to build an effective strategy for a strong presence on the SERP without coordinating with paid search.

Customers have also become increasingly channel-agnostic. They interact with brands on several different devices via multiple channels, and they are interested in a variety of types of content.

Brands that succeed in 2017 will need to coordinate organic and paid search marketing disciplines and understand how they can work together to build the relationship with customers.

Seizing SEO opportunity across a fragmented customer journey in 2017

It is important to recognize, as we move into 2017, that the modern customer journey has fragmented. In years past, marketers were able to clearly identify a linear path that people followed as they moved from their first realization that they had a problem that needed to be solved to making a purchase.

The increasing prevalence of digital technology in modern life, however, has shattered this journey into a series of micro touch points — high-intent moments that Google has termed micro-moments.

We are likely all familiar now with the four main categories of micro-moments:

  • The I-want-to-know moment
  • The I-want-to-go moment
  • The I-want-to-buy moment
  • The I-want-to-do moment

These micro-moments can appear in any order at any point in the buyer’s journey, and they all present opportunities for brands to build relationships with their prospects. The SERP has changed in order to better reflect these micro-moments. Google tries to understand the intent behind a particular query, the micro-moment that fits it best, and the type of content most likely to answer the need of the user.

This is why certain queries are answered by images, others by videos, rich displays or local business listings. For brands to effectively optimize for the modern buyer’s journey, they must also be able to understand the intent that customers have behind their queries and be able to optimize different types of content to meet the needs of consumers throughout this fragmented path.

On the modern customer journey, content, local, and mobile have all converged. Customers’ expectations of content changes from moment to moment, and brands must be prepared to meet their needs. Evangelizing search success and its pivotal position in content, social, mobile and local markets will set you up for personal and professional success in 2017.

Evangelizing success in your organization

To successfully grow the role of organic search within your organization, you must evangelize the practice to others, both cross-departmentally and to those in the C-suite or on your board. To drive further organic search success in 2017, you will need buy-in from those higher in the organization.

It is also critical that people in other departments start understanding the language of SEO so they can incorporate the principles into their work. This is the only way you will be able to develop mature, organization-wide optimization practices. Below I leave you with a few tips for achieving this.

1. Focus on your largest channel — organic search

Use concrete numbers to show your progress and results. Organic search remains the largest channel for most B2B and B2C websites, so focus your efforts here to begin to build a strong case for the value of optimization.

Organic search does not have direct media costs, but it has the potential for high returns while also driving brand awareness in addition to revenue, making it a great starting point for your conversations with others.

As you build your organic channel, use data as your source for the strategy to guide your efforts. Then use the numbers to demonstrate your progress and success to the rest of the organization.

seo-success-brightedge

2. Invest in your talent

As the different channels within marketing become more connected with search in the age of the micro-moment and the new customer journey, the value of strong marketers who understand the different channels becomes even more evident.

Your investment should be in both existing employees and new ones. For existing employees, look for both internal and external training opportunities to teach them how the different channels work. Encourage cross-departmental communication and cooperation to provide people with opportunities to grow their skills.

3. Understand the priorities of those in the C-suite

To properly engage the leaders of your organization, you need to align your data and arguments with what the C-suite leaders want to see.

Key data points that interest leaders tend to be the position of your brand against competitors, the value of your marketing efforts, the efficiency of organic search optimization and your ROI.

4. Secure executive sponsorship

Business leaders want to map their strategy to their projected outcomes to allocate budget appropriately. By following the above steps and being able to demonstrate your success, you will build a strong case to secure more budget for your initiatives moving forward.

Use these resources to begin the process of scaling your efforts and further integrating organic search throughout different marketing channels and departments.

5. Focus on overarching digital growth

Succeeding in SEO in 2017 will require brands to put SEO at the core of their organization and Digital Centers of Excellence.

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Rather than acting as a standalone department, SEO needs to be integrated with the rest of the brand marketing functions, from PR to SEM. Brands need to recognize the changing customer journey and how those changes impact the strategies used by the organization.

Digital disruption has shifted how customers interact with brands, where they go to seek answers, and how they build relationships with companies. The brands that succeed in moving forward will be the ones that understand the different intent signals of various types of queries. They will know how to optimize all of the content they produce, from videos and images to social posts, to be present for these customers and address their needs during the micro-moment.

The mature organization is one that understands the value of SEO integration: breaking down silos and functioning as a single promotional unit, rather than having it handled by several separate departments. Once brands accomplish this change in mindset, they will be in a position to establish themselves as leaders within their industry and build a strong sales funnel for the modern digital consumer in 2017.

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