How To Be Ready For The Next Google Algorithm Update on April 21, 2015?

Many website owners now started to receive warnings on their GWMT accounts telling them that their websites have issues on being friendly on mobile devices, and most of these issues are speed related.

Then Last Month Google has announced it will release an update on April 21st, which will have a significant impact on websites that are NOT mobile friendly. According to Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Zineb Ait Bahajji the coming Mobile Update will have a much stronger impact then any Panda update!


As a marketer, I now have to know how big this difference will be on my domain and where there is specific room for optimization. Because if the traffic from mobile devices continues to rise, and the wheat separates from the chaff, then I have only a few possibilities to find out the following points:

1. What is the status of my mobile performance?
2. What do I ideally have to do to improve it?
3. What does my competition look like?

It is therefore even more important to have a basis of comparison in which the specific difference between my Desktop and Mobile Visibility can be recognized.

Search Metrics have already collected & analyzed data last year for providing facts about differences of the Mobile SEO Ranking Factors. The split between mobile and desktop search results is measurable. At their last Mobile Ranking Factor study in 2014 the difference of URLs between Desktop and Mobile index was already 36%.

Here is an excerpt of their findings:

"It’s for this reason that we have been tracking the same keywords for months in the mobile area as we have for desktop searches. This is, firstly, to see how the results keep differentiating more and more (which they definitely do) and, secondly, with the intention of giving our users the opportunity to have more evidence for their optimization.

And so, the time has come: the Mobile SEO Visibility (Beta) is now available as a KPI in the Searchmetrics Suite for all users, providing first indications for figuring out main differences between Desktop and Mobile SEO Visibility.

Comparability of Desktop and Mobile Visibility

The starting problem is: Desktop and Mobile cannot really be compared and analyzed to one another under real conditions. In the mobile area, there are different click-through-rates, search volumes, user intentions and the influence of local parameters on the search results is different.

Nevertheless, we want to make a comparison between Desktop and Mobile index possible and have converted our calculation of the normal SEO Visibility – which is based on a dynamic CTR calculation by machine learning algorithms – 1:1 to mobile. Why? Because we consider it to be intrinsic to prepare a mutual basis as a KPI in the form of this comparison. Especially to see how the performance is now and how it will change at April 21st.

The Mobile SEO Visibility will be updated weekly.

We have decided on an Android smartphone as a user agent. Differences between iOS and Android can occur, but in my opinion they are irrelevant, as the only differences that I have previously witnessed occur in queries for apps. For example, if you search for ‘netflix’, the Apple App Store ranks on an iPhone, whereas the Google Play Store ranks on an Android. This is also the reason why apple.com and google.com show such great deviations in Mobile SEO Visibility. Other than this, there have not been any further relevant differences between these domains so far.

Mobile SEO Visibility with desktop comparison at a glance

From now on, there are new KPIs for the evaluation of Mobile SEO Visibility (Beta) in the research area. The new search result page of the Searchmetrics Suite in the research area looks like this:

The rank overview, which was previously displayed across the entire page width, has moved to a closed circular graphic on the left side – in favor of the new ‘Desktop vs Mobile’ KPI. By the way, we have dubbed this circular graphic ‘mojo’, as in Austin Powers, as it shows at a glance how much mojo a domain has in a respective country and which channel works best!

We have also pre-calculated the Mobile SEO Visibility on all subdomains so that you can see how a mobile subdomain, such as en.m.wikipedia.org or m.imdb.com, performs.

The new KPIs and possibilities at a glance:

• Desktop vs Mobile Visibility – comparison of visibility on the same database
  • Difference been Desktop and Mobile Visibility (circular graphic with percentage overlap of the respective Visibility)
  • Trend desktop/trend mobile – to previous week
• Mobile SEO Visibility (SEO research)
• Mobile Paid Visibility (SEO research)
• Mojo with the ranks for SEO, paid, social and links
• Toplist domains (top 10/ top 100) comparison of SEO visibility desktop vs mobile

1. Recognize problem: same database for desktop and mobile

This ‘Desktop vs Mobile’ KPI offers the simplest way to create comparability between Desktop and Mobile Visibility performance. In order to ensure this comparability, we work with identical CTR calculation and search volume on the basis of desktop values.

2. Solve problem: individual data for mobile

We know that both CTR and search volume differ in the mobile area. We have already been working with mobile data for years and have even offered mobile rankings in the project area of our Suite since June 2013. Therefore, we recommend this new Mobile SEO Visibility (Beta) only be used as an indicator in order to understand how the performance between mobile and desktop differs.

Specific analyses in the project area

For an optimum mobile measurement of performance, individual, local rankings for mobile with individual mobile search volume are necessary. We offer this data and functionality within the project area in the Searchmetrics Suite using more than 800 search machine/country/device combinations.

Conclusion: From data comparison to deep analysis

The new ‘Desktop vs Mobile’ KPI can been seen as the starting point for recognizing how big the overlap between my Desktop and my Mobile Visibility is. Furthermore, the trend shows at a glance how my performance has recently developed. Due to the fact that this KPI is part of the research area, all users of the Suite benefit from this update, which spans not only the SEO but also the PPC area.

In order to be prepared for April 21 – Google’s mobile update – and thereafter, the tracking of concrete mobile rankings is required. This is already available in the project area of the Suite, taking into account also historical developments and individual data.

Check out the current status of your Desktop vs Mobile Visibility and start projects in order to track your individual performance.

suite.searchmetrics.com/en/research.

SEO Friendly Infinite Scroll

Three major news website redesigns this year look very different but have an important feature in common: articles that seamlessly transition to new content, without requiring readers to click or tap headlines and then wait for new pages to load.

This “continuous scroll” strategy for news sites’ article pages is gaining momentum. It’s been adopted by Time.com, NBCNews.com andLATimes.com, reflecting the fact that direct homepage traffic is waning (see the New York Times innovation report), and traffic from social media (particularly Facebook) just keeps growing.

So as readers increasingly enter sites from “side doors” or article pages, media organizations are trying to figure out how to get them to stick around. Pew recently found that visitors from Facebook are far less engaged than direct visitors. Here’s how sites that relaunched in the first half of 2014 are addressing that problem by making use of the continuous scroll (aka infinite scroll) feature in their article pages:

Time.com

Since its March redesign, Time.com’s bounce rate — the percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing only one page — has declined by 15 percentage points, according to managing editor Edward Felsenthal. The percentage of desktop visitors going to another piece of content jumped 21 percentage points between February and May.

Felsenthal attributed that to the continuous scroll, which provides a clickless path for readers to reach another story. He said the left rail, which serves as a “traveling homepage” of links to the top stories of the moment, also helped.

The fact that Time.com queues up top stories, not related stories, is crucial to the site’s strategy for serving social visitors, Felsenthal said: “In many ways the major objective of our redesign was to showcase for those users the full Time offering.”

NBC News

The redesigned NBC News takes a different approach from Time. Article pages transition into related stories, not top stories. And some stories are compiled into “storylines,” so if you’re interested in “hot cars and kids,” you can read a stack of more than 30 stories.

Mobile page views in June were up 30 percent over the previous 12-month average, according to an NBC News spokesperson. On average, NBC News readers on desktop and mobile are seeing nearly 20 percent more pages per visit than before the site’s February redesign.

Los Angeles Times

The LA Times redesign is less seamless than the other two in terms of transitioning quickly to the next piece of content. There’s a choose-your-own-adventure quality to the layout; non-blog stories transition into a section page instead of another article page based on which section you choose.

That gives readers more control over where the site takes them next, but requiring readers to choose what they see next adds some friction that the other sites lack.

A spokesperson for the LA Times said it was too early to share specifics about how the newspaper’s new site is performing. She summed up the goals of the May redesign:

• Eradicating print-centric and antiquated web concepts, such as “the fold,” “the jump,” “endless clicking” and “the dead end” with endless scrolling and multi-directional navigation
• Seamlessly pathing readers from one piece of content to the next, with section fronts and article pages anchored by a row of thumbnails that automatically transport readers to related coverage or other sections

Quartz, Fortune, and Cosmopolitan

The homepage-less Quartz is a clear influence here, particularly for Time. Whatever page you arrive on via social media occupies the top spot in the story stack, with top news — not related stories — below. Editorial news judgment plays a big role in the reader’s experience.

Quartz senior editor Zach Seward said it’s nice to see others emulate one of his site’s signature features: “It must mean we’re onto something.” He also said he doesn’t like the term “infinite scroll”:

The intent is to help users who get to the end of a story but want to keep reading. Some sites have dead ends, others create paralysis of choice. We choose to quietly suggest just one more story, which users can easily scroll into or just ignore. It’s all about that one moment rather some kind of infinite experience.

Seward recently told Digiday’s Ricardo Bilton that Quartz estimates “readers view about 50 percent more stories per visit than they would without the option to scroll.” And, Seward said, “When people choose to read another story on Quartz, about 80 percent do so by scrolling, as opposed to clicking on a headline.”

Time Inc.’s Money and Fortune have also adopted the Quartz-inspired Time.com template for their redesigns. And at the “sexy new Cosmopolitan.com”, a long stack of related stories is presented to readers at the bottom of article pages.

The article page is the new homepage, so what goes on underneath articles seems to be the paramount concern when redesigning a media site in 2014. Some, like Time and Quartz, choose to “quietly suggest” a particular story. Others, like the LA Times and Cosmo, are using the space below stories to offer lots of choices for readers. But all of them have redesigned with an eye toward that second click or page view.

10 Essentials in Implementing a SEO-Effective Infinite Scroll

The Infinite Scroll is becoming increasingly used in Web design. In fact, many businesses are choosing this feature for their websites, either to provide a different experience to users or to stay up-to-date with the latest digital trends. While it can be beneficial to adopt Infinite Scroll, it is important that its implementation takes into account the best SEO and usability practices.

The Main Issue: Indexing

In terms of SEO, one of the major challenges that you may encounter in trying to implement Infinite Scroll is indexing. The issue stems from the fact that Google does not allow the JavaScript download to display content found below a Web page that was programmed in Infinite Scroll. As a result, when the search engine lands on your Web page, it will only see the content that is first presented to the user; the content that is visible without having to scroll. To address this shortcoming, you must help Google detect your entire website’s content to effectively index your website and promote visibility between internal pages. You can do this by implementing an interlinking strategy.

Interlinking: The Solution to Indexing

An interlinking strategy is necessary to promote effective indexing to your website’s pages. By allowing Google to effectively crawl internal pages, you can ensure your website’s domain authority will remain high.

Classic Pagination

The first step to an effective interlinking strategy (when implementing Infinite Scroll), is to use a system of classic pagination. Pagination not only allows for a better crawling of pages (as mentioned above), but it is also necessary for users who turned off JavaScript display on their Web browser for whatever reason.

By adopting a classic navigation system, we help Google access all content on your website. As a result in the search engines, your website appears completely normal without any third-party technology such as Infinite Scroll. You no longer have to be concerned about your content being detected.

The following provides practical tips on how to implement classic pagination with Infinite Scroll.

As the image above indicates, the key to successful pagination is to first divide the content into unique segments, while carefully avoiding the possibility of duplicate content. Next, one should have a unique URL per page (ex. site.com/page/1, site.com/page/2, etc.) and a unique title per page (ex. website – Page 1, website – Page 2, etc.). It is necessary to present search engines and users with navigational numbered links toward other pages. There should be at least one "Back" link and one "Next" link.

Furthermore, you must use the REL and CANONICAL meta tags in the pagination system to properly segment the process, ensure there are no issues with browsing and indexing, and to avoid the possibility of duplicate pages. You must also ensure that off limit pages all give a 404 error. Why?

"JavaScript code which is too complex or arcane could also prevent rendering the page fully and accurately." — Google Webmaster Central Blog, May 23, 2014

Too Complex or Arcane?

Without classic pagination, the Google bot will not be able to access your content. Infinite Scroll requires a scrolling interaction that the robot in theory cannot execute. No scrolling, no content. No content, no search results.

Other Interlinking Elements

The following is a list of other key elements that need to be implemented to ensure proper indexing:

• Well-segmented categorization: Segmentation of your content should be structured appropriately with categories and tags.
• Well-structured menus: Do not be afraid to include in your menus all the internal pages that you think are pertinent (categories, tags, articles, etc.)
• Interlinking module: An effective and popular technique for executing a good interlinking strategy is the use of an automatic module. For example, inserting a "related post" or "random articles" script at the end of a blog article will allow the wide distribution of pages with a high domain authority. This brings optimal indexing, and gives fresh impetus to forgotten older articles.
• Avoid no-follow links: Surprisingly, many sites use the no-follow attribute on their own internal links. This practice basically indicates to Google that you do not trust pages that are internal to your website.
• Sitemap: Including a sitemap on your website will help the indexing of your site.

Infinite Scroll as a Progressive Improvement

Infinite Scroll should be implemented as a "progressive improvement"; that is, it should function as an additional feature available to users that support it, without penalizing others or changing the technical structure of the site.

Asynchronous Download

For a "progressively improving" implementation, an Infinite Scroll has to load the required JavaScript elements necessary for asynchronous operation. Here is an overview of Infinite Scroll in asynchronous mode:

1. The user requests a page (eg: site.com/page/3) and gets the content of this page.
2. When it reaches the limits of content while scrolling, a JavaScript function will run, requiring new content from the server.
3. When the server responds with the new content, another JavaScript function interprets the data and injects it into the HTML page.
4. When there is more content to download, the server responds with a 404 error message that will not be shown to the user. Rather, we will post a notice that the content is exhausted. This feature works for both a scroll up as a scroll down.

Preloading and Caching

The asynchronous download can cause delays in the content display depending on the server’s response time. Therefore, we must use preloading and caching. The purpose of preloading is to download the adjacent content preventatively to minimize the new contents’ loading time. Caching’s purpose is to keep asynchronously downloaded content in memory.

Browsing States

1. History API (Or "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T BREAK THE BACK BUTTON")

The Infinite Scroll is definitely a plus for continuous navigation, but what about "segmented" navigation? If a user scrolls for several sections, finds an interesting link and clicks it, then returns to the Infinite Scroll, what happens?

If a user visits your site, leaves, then comes back a few days later and tries to find a certain piece of content, what is their experience? How will they know where to go? The answers to these questions are found in the History.pushState.

2. History.pushState

History.pushState lets you change the URL in the address bar dynamically. When the user scrolls and reaches a new section, the address bar will change. The pushState then creates a new state in the browser navigation history. If the user clicks on the back button, it will be up to the previous URL we populate via pushState.

history.pushState(stateObject, title, URL);

window.onpopstate = function(event) {

window.location = window.location; }

Sites like Facebook and 9gag demonstrate the importance of this practice. If you scroll far down on the site page with Infinite Scroll, then accidentally press the "Back" button and return immediately to the site, you will return to the very top of the scroll instead of exactly where you left off.

SEO Benefits?

The implementation of an Infinite Scroll, when well established, will not influence the SEO performance of a website. The major advantage however, lies in optimizing conversions (depending, of course, on the objectives of the website in question!).

For example, one of the most documented cases is that of TIME Magazine, which managed to reduce its bounce rate by 15 percent simply through the implementation of an Infinite Scroll. The reason being is when users enter the Time.com website, they browse through several different pages of content without realizing they have changed pages multiple times. This increases the likelihood that they will view many content pages on the website during their visit. The main lesson learned in all of this is that a user is extremely lazy, and it’s up to you to make it as easy as possible for them to go through your content!

Thus, the implementation of an Infinite Scroll on your website may allow you to decrease your bounce rate and increase the amount of content being viewed, as well as the number of pageviews. This can be extremely interesting for sites whose main income comes from advertising with CPM ads (if the advertisement reloads when users change pages with Infinite Scroll).

Conclusion

In summary, the implementation of Infinite Scroll on your website may benefit the user experience and increase conversions, provided you follow best Web development practices. By following the advice shared in this article, you can easily avoid falling into the trap of not indexing. You will also be able to give more weight to your internal pages and much more easily achieve your conversion goals. The Infinite Scroll will help achieve conversions if set up based on UX best practices.

References

• Francis Roussin, earned media advisor, and Philippe Vachon-Rivard, front-end developer at iProspect, also contributed to this post.
• http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2392566/10-essentials-in-implementing-a-seo-effective-infinite-scroll
• http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257466/time-coms-bounce-rate-down-15-percentage-points-since-adopting-continuous-scroll/

301 Redirect Old Domain Without Passing Link Juice or Referral Signals

If you're hit by Google algorithm's Penguin and tried your best to disavow all the "Bad" links coming to your site, but your site has not been recovered yet, then you might be thinking of starting a new website with clean backlinks portfolio and White Hat SEO.

Of course you do not want your visitors to go to the old abandoned site, and of course you cannot 301 redirect the old domain to the new one, or else you will be transferring all the harmful link signals with you.

So, the best technique to do (after you've decided to start a fresh site) is do this simple yet very effective technique:

1- get a new domain name to use as intermediary  (Example: www.oldsite2.com)
2- Add a Robots.txt file and make the root domain (of the intermediary site) Disallowed

User-agent:*
Disallow: / 

3- Redirect (301) the old domain to the intermediary.
4- Permananetly redirect (301) the intermediary to the brand new domain

More to do:

You can also:
1- Add a robots.txt file to the old site to deindex it from search engines (follow step 2)
2- Use Google's URL removal tool and remove all the URLS of the old site.

A Fresh Beginning:

Now it is a new opportunity to start fresh with a new domain, new content, and better strategy.

Short Story Long:

http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2355513/youve-been-hit-by-penguin-should-you-start-over-or-try-to-recover
http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2384644/can-you-safely-redirect-users-from-a-penguin-hit-site-to-a-new-domain

How to know where your visitors go when they leave your website?

How can I see which specific pages/URLs people visit after leaving my site? In other words, I can see the percentage of people that EXIT on a certain page, but I want to be able to see which links on an exit page they follow (i.e. what percent of the visitors to a certain page of our site click on each outbound link on our page)? Or are they just leaving our site without necessarily visiting an outside site we've linked to?

Short Answer: You add this code to your link so it looks like:

<a href="http://www.example.com/" onClick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/example');">Co name or link info</a>

Will show up in Google Analytics as a page view.

Detailed Answer: (From Google Support) 

You can customize your Google Analytics tracking code to find out when users click outbound links, or links that take users to a website other than your own.

This article gives you an example of how to set up outbound link tracking. This is a two-step process, and you need to follow both steps complete the process.

You must have Google Analytics account and the web tracking code set up before you can track outbound links. You should have a basic knowledge of HTML and JavaScript or work with a developer to complete the set up.

Step 1: Set up an Event to track outbound links

Event tracking is a way you can track user interactions that aren’t automatically collected by the Google Analytics tracking code snippet, including clicks to outbound links. Learn more about Event tracking.

You can copy and paste the example below into your own pages to set up Event tracking for outbound links. We recommend you put this script in your page headers, but not within the basic Google Analytics tracking code snippet.

When you set up an Event, you must define values for the Event components. The Event components define how the data appears in your reports. In this example, the Category, Action, and Label are defined (in bold). You can use these values, or change them and define your own values. Learn more about Event components or refer to our Developer Guides for more technical information on the Event tracking.

The changes you need to make to your web pages depend on which tracking code you’re using. See if you have Classic Analytics (ga.js) or Universal Analytics (analytics.js).

This example uses Event tracking for Universal Analytics. If you’re using Classic Analytics, refer to our Developer Guides for more information on how to track outbound links with Events using the ga.js JavaScript library.

<script>
/**
* Function that tracks a click on an outbound link in Google Analytics.
* This function takes a valid URL string as an argument, and uses that URL string
* as the event label.
*/
var trackOutboundLink = function(url) {
   ga('send', 'event', 'outbound', 'click', url, {'hitCallback':
     function () {
     document.location = url;
     }
   });
}
</script>

Step 2: Add the onclick attribute to your outbound links

After you have Event tracking set up (Step 1), you must also add (or modify) the onclick attribute to your links. This is how data from a specific link gets sent to Google Analytics.

Use this example as a model for your own links:

<a href="http://www.example.com" onclick=”trackOutboundLink(‘http://www.example.com’); return false;">Check out example.com</a>

Additional resources (for developers)

This example includes the hitCallback field, which tells Google Analytics when the user interaction is complete., and uses the trackOutboundLink() as the JavaScript function. This makes sure that you collect the interaction data before the user leaves your site.

For more information on how this works, refer to the hitCallback reference in our Developer Guides.

This tutorial describes how to track outgoing links using the NEW Google Universal Analytics.js code, commonly called Analytics.js or UA. If you are using the OLD ga.js code click here.

This guide describes how to track outgoing links using Google Universal Analytics or commonly known as Analytics.js - the NEW (since late 2013) tracking that Google provides it's webmasters.

If the tracking code you use on your website starts with

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function()

... then you are using the NEW Analytics.js code and you can continue reading below.

If however your tracking code starts with

var _gaq=_gaq||[];

... then you are using the OLD Google Analytics code, and you should refer to the other guide: Track outbound links with Google Analytics (ga.js)

The issue tracking outbound links

Since Google introduced the Asynchronous Tracking method, one of the most common questions is: "how do I track outgoing links"? The solution is quite simple, one has to track outgoing links as events (found in Google Analytics under Behavior - Events). The problem however is that it does not always work for everyone, the reason being that events are only recorded once a link is clicked. If that link takes you away from a page (such as an outgoing link in the same window), that tracking event often does not have time to register with the analytics server before the new page starts to load and the tracking request cancelled.

In order to ensure that tracking is done properly, we either have to ensure that the target window is a new window (eg: _blank), or delay the opening of the link by about half a second, giving your browser enough time to register the event and load the tracking url.

Automatically track outbound links

The best method of "auto-tracking" outgoing links is to automatically detect outbound links with JavaScript when they are clicked, and automatically track that event. That tracking event should first check to see whether that link is destined to open in a new window (target="_blank"), and:

• If yes, register the track, and open the link in the new window
• If no, register the track and delay opening the link by half a second, then proceed to open that link.

This method is by far the most robust, and simply means you need to include an external JavaScript file on your pages.

function _gaLt(event){
    var el = event.srcElement || event.target;

    /* Loop up the tree through parent elements if clicked element is not a link (eg: an image inside a link) */
    while(el && (typeof el.tagName == 'undefined' || el.tagName.toLowerCase() != 'a' || !el.href))
        el = el.parentNode;

    if(el && el.href){
        if(el.href.indexOf(location.host) == -1){ /* external link */
            ga("send", "event", "Outgoing Links", el.href, document.location.pathname + document.location.search);
            /* if target not set then delay opening of window by 0.5s to allow tracking */
            if(!el.target || el.target.match(/^_(self|parent|top)$/i)){
                setTimeout(function(){
                    document.location.href = el.href;
                }.bind(el),500);
                /* Prevent standard click */
                event.preventDefault ? event.preventDefault() : event.returnValue = !1;
            }
        }

    }
}

/* Attach the event to all clicks in the document after page has loaded */
var w = window;
w.addEventListener ? w.addEventListener("load",function(){document.body.addEventListener("click",_gaLt,!1)},!1)
  : w.attachEvent && w.attachEvent("onload",function(){document.body.attachEvent("onclick",_gaLt)});

Manually Track outbound links

If you are wanting to track links manually (ie: in the code), an outbound link on your website should look something like this:

<a href="http://outgoinglink.com"
   onclick="ga('send','event','Outgoing Links','outgoinglink.com')" target="_blank">Link Text</a>

What this will do (when clicked) is track an event called "outgoing_links" as "outgoinglink.com". This means that in your Google Analytics account, which has an "Event Tracking" section, you now get a category called "Outgoing Links" containing an action (and total recorded) of outgoing links. Please note the target="_blank" as this ensures your web browser is kept open and the event is able to register.

Tracking any other links

Using this new method, you can theoretically track anything on your website, including downloads, videos, etc. You just need to assign an "onclick" event with your own category and "description" (action), such as:

<a href="/myfiles/mypdf.pdf"
 onclick="ga('send','event','downloads','/myfiles/mypdf.pdf')" target="_blank">Link Text</a>

Prevent search engines from displaying DMOZ data in search results for your site

One source Google uses to generate snippets is the Open Directory Project. You can direct us not to use this as a source by adding a meta tag to your pages.

To prevent all search engines (that support the meta tag) from using this information for the page's description, use the following:
<meta name="robots" content="NOODP">


To specifically prevent Google from using this information for a page's description, use the following:
<meta name="googlebot" content="NOODP">


If you use the robots meta tag for other directives, you can combine those. For instance:
<meta name="googlebot" content="NOODP, nofollow">


Note that once you add this meta tag to your pages, it may take some time for changes to your snippets to appear in the index.

Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35624?hl=en

All about Google Analytics Chrome Extension

The Google Analytics team recently released a Chrome Extension that allows you to get detailed information about each page of your website while you browse it. Below I will go through some of the extension's features and how to use it to get a better idea of what is going on in your website.

In order to use the extension you will need any kind of Google Analytics permission to the website you are analyzing, a Chrome browser and the Extension (download here). Once you have those three, you can click on the Google Analytics icon on your browser while browsing your website (the icon is usually found on the top right corner of the page). 

Below is the extension's interface map with all its functionalities followed by an explanation of each.

The Page Analytics Chrome Extension allows you to see how customers interact with your web pages, including what they click and don’t click. 

Use these insights to optimize your website layout, improve user experience, and increase conversions. When you view a web page for which you have Google Analytics access, you’ll see: Google Analytics metrics: Pageviews, Unique Pageviews, Avg time on page, Bounce Rate, and %Exit Number of active visitors, in real time In-page click analysis: (where users click) You can use the Google Analytics date comparison and segmentation tools directly in the extension. 

Pages you are tracking with the Google Analytics code for an account your Google account login has access to will appear like this in your Chrome browse.

Notice that by installing this extension, you agree to the Google Terms of Service and Privacy Policy at https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/.

Resources: 

1- https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/page-analytics-by-google/fnbdnhhicmebfgdgglcdacdapkcihcoh?hl=en

2- http://online-behavior.com/analytics/in-page

How to allow visitors to your site to hide their data from Google analytics? -With a browser Add-on!

To provide website visitors the ability to prevent their data from being used by Google Analytics, Google have developed the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on for the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js).

If you want to opt-out, download and install the add-on for your web browser.

The Google Analytics opt-out add-on is designed to be compatible with Chrome, Internet Explorer 8-11, Safari, Firefox and Opera.

In order to function, the opt-out add-on must be able to load and execute properly on your browser. For Internet Explorer, 3rd-party cookies must be enabled.

If you want to opt-out, download and install the extension for your web browser. In order to function, the opt-out extension must be able to load and execute properly on your browser.

Here is the official link for Google Analytics Opt-out to install the plugin: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

You can Even hide from more:

Avoid your data being collected by Digital Analytix

If you would like to opt out from being measured ever by Digital Analytix, you may opt out by clicking here.  If you choose this opt out, a cookie will be placed on your computer instructing Digital Analytix not to measure your use of or visits to events with Digital Analytix tags.  However, please note that if your web browser does not accept cookies, or if you delete the opt out cookie, the opt out is invalidated.  Also, please note that this opt out is only effective for the web browser you were using when you opted out, because cookies are specific to each web browser. 

Opting out of Analytical Performance Cookies:

If you would like to opt out of Analytics cookies, please do so by clicking on the links below:

• Comscore Digital Analytix – http://sitestat.com/privacy/
• Google Analytics: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Opting out of Behavioral Advertising Cookies:

If you would like to disable “third party” cookies generated by advertisers or providers of targeted advertising services, you can turn them off by going to the third party’s website and getting them to generate a one-time “no thanks” cookie that will stop any further cookies being written to your machine. Here are links to the main third party advertising platforms we use, each of which have instructions on how to do this:

• http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html
• http://www.audiencescience.com/consumers
• http://www.admeld.com/privacy/

You can find out how to decline other online behavioral advertising by visiting:

• http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

Source: http://www.futureplc.com/cookies-policy/how-can-i-manage-or-opt-out-of-cookies/

Impact of Design on Conversions (InfoGraphic)

Here are 8 important tips to increase your conversion rate only by landing page (re)design: 

• Let your primary conversion target dominate the page.
• Test using an impactful and contrasting photo as your hero shot, and mirror the palette choice and contrast levels on your CTA (Call 2 Action) to draw a parallel and guide the visitor from the emotional element to the conversion goal.
• Use photography of people or animals on your landing page and have them stare directly at your CTA with either the angle of their head or their eyes (in a closeup).
• Go a bit punk and try something radical on your landing pages.
• Use strong dynamic shapes to constrain your points of interest.
• Call attention to your most important page elements by using strangely placed and angled arrows. Tie a sequence of arrows together to define a path for the visitor to follow, ending at your CTA.
• Design converging lines to draw people to your Call To Action. Triangles are the most dynamic of all shapes, and their natural tendency to point make them a special design tool (in the same way that an arrow is a more intricately designed pathway).

Source: Unbounce

Let People Know "In Real-Time" When Your blog is Updated with PubSubHubbub

As a blogger (Publisher) you want to notify the cyberspace about your new blog post, first to get it crawled faster, and second to avoid your article being stolen by another Blog and it gets crawled and ranked before you do.

That is when PubSubHubHub comes in handy as it sends realtime notifications to blogfeed hubs when you update your blog.

A simple, open, server-to-server webhook-based pubsub (publish/subscribe) protocol for any web accessible resources.

Pubsubhubbub is used for content publishing by many websites, including all blogs served by blogger.com and WordPress.com, news sites including CNN and Fox news, and social networks like diaspora

Parties (servers) speaking the PubSubHubbub protocol can get near-instant notifications (via webhook callbacks) when a topic (resource URL) they're interested in is updated.

The protocol in a nutshell is as follows:

• An resource URL (a "topic") declares its Hub server(s) in its HTTP Headers, via Link: <hub url>; rel=”hub” . The hub(s) can be run by the publisher of the resource, or can be acommunity hub that anybody can use: Google's, or Superfeedr.

• A subscriber (a server that's interested in a topic), initially fetches the resource URL as normal. If the response declares its hubs, the subscriber can then avoid lame, repeated polling of the URL and can instead register with the designated hub(s) and subscribe to updates.

• The subscriber subscribes to the Topic URL from the Topic URL's declared Hub(s).

• When the Publisher next updates the Topic URL, the publisher software pings the Hub(s) saying that there's an update.

• The hub efficiently fetches the published resource and multicasts the new/changed content out to all registered subscribers.

The protocol is decentralized and free. No company is at the center of this controlling it. Anybody can run a hub, or anybody can ping (publish) or subscribe using open hubs.

Google and Superfeedr offer a public and scalable open hub for anybody to use.

How to Use PubSubhubhub with your feeds?

• Add an //atom:link tag under //atom:entry for Atom feeds or under //rss:rss/channel for RSS feeds. The //atom:link tag should haverel attribute set to hub and href attribute set to https://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/
• Alternatively, your feed can be served with two Link headers:
  • one with rel attribute set to hub and href attribute set to https://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/
  • one with rel attribute set to self and href attribute set to the feed URL of the feed
The above is covered in more detail in the PubsubHubbub 0.4 specification.
• Whenever new content is added to a feed, notify the hub. This is accomplished by sending a POST request tohttps://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/ with Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded and two parameters encoded in the body:
  • hub.mode equal to publish
  • hub.url equal to the feed URL of the feed that has been updated. This field may be repeated to indicate multiple feeds that have been updated

Hub debug

From here you can,

• Subscribe to a feed or debug your subscriber
• Publish a feed or debug your published feeds

If you are a WordPress Blogger and wants to Ping the hub easily, there is a Plugin for that.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/pubsubhubbub/

The Plugin does the following:

Sends realtime notifications when you update your blog
Supports multi-user installations (WordPress MU)
Supports multiple hubs
Supports all of the feed formats used by WordPress, not just ATOM and RSS2
Supports latest spec (Version 0.4)
Announces which hubs you are using by adding <link rel="hub" ...> declarations to your template header and ATOM feed
Adds <atom:link rel="hub" ...> to your RSS feeds along with the necessary XMLNS declaration for RSS 0.92/1.0