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New Developments This Week in Google and Bing

December 3, 2010
by Jennifer Grappone

There’s been a lot of discussion this week about two recent announcements concerning Google’s and Bing’s ranking algorithms. We’ll boil them down for you here.

1. Twitter authority is factoring into web rankings
Google and Bing have disclosed that they assign authority to Twitter accounts, and that a person of high authority may give a rankings boost to a page by tweeting a link to that page. This is a similar concept to Google’s PageRank, in which Google assesses the strength of a web page. At this time there is no official name for Twitter authority, and no specific value that is available for the public to see.

While we’ve always known that links from within tweets are beneficial because they can drive traffic to a site, it was previously believed that tweets did not pass any ranking power. We now believe that, at least in some cases, tweets that link to a page can help improve that page’s organic ranks.

What this means to you
This revelation underscores the importance of getting your website talked about on Twitter. Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, advises that website owners should think about Twitter as a form of link building.

Although this was not explicitly stated, we believe that being linked to on public Facebook venues also carries some ranking benefits in Google and Bing.

Read Danny Sullivan’s excellent article on Social signals and search rankings.

2. Merchant reviews appear to influence rankings
We are keeping an eye on a new algorithm change announced by Google this week. The official wording is ambiguous, but the catalyst for this algorithm change was a recent New York Times article about a high-ranking, highly unscrupulous online merchant. Top SEO analysts believe that merchant reviews (the reviews that users post about online stores in venues such as Google Checkout, Shopzilla, and Pricegrabber) are now factoring into Google’s determination of ranks. Merchant reviews, which reside on review aggregator sites, are different from individual product reviews, which typically reside on the merchant’s own site.

Positive merchant reviews are expected to have a positive effect on ranks, so it goes without saying that the more highly regarded a business is (as evidenced by merchant reviews) the better the potential rankings benefit.

What this means to you
We believe that any online store should have a merchant account set up in at least one venue to begin accruing and encouraging positive merchant reviews. This is something we always recommend, but it’s something that now deserves a higher priority on your list of SEO endeavors.

This is a very recent announcement, and the interpretations are still highly speculative, however we believe that this is most likely to strongly affect merchants with very poor reviews at this time. We expect this algorithmic factor to evolve in the near future.

Read Google’s announcement on their recent changes.

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Gravity Search Marketing is Hiring!

October 13, 2010
by Jennifer Grappone

Our boutique SEO/Social Marketing firm is growing, and we’re looking for a web-savvy and very bright person to join our team.

Responsibilities:
– Writing. You may write internal communications (for example, compiling insights or analysis to be delivered to the firm’s partners), client-facing documents or communications (for example, competitive analysis reports, or answering client questions) and copy intended for the web (for example, page copy, meta description tags, HTML titles, tweets, etc).
– Research and review. You will get to know our clients, their offerings, and their general marketing strategies. You may be asked to review their competitors’ sites and summarize their strategies. You may be asked to review a blog and provide suggestions for additional topics. You may be asked to identify influential Twitter accounts for a given topic.
– Contributions to strategy discussions. You will use your considerable familiarity with SEO, social media, and the mobile web to contribute ideas for client strategies.
– Data gathering and spreadsheet tasks. This may involve keyword research, compiling rankings reports, and using basic Excel formulas to manipulate data.

You will work in a Los Angeles area office 2 – 3 days per week, a total of 20 hours per week. Exact hours are flexible but must be the same every week.

Requirements:
– Excellent written and spoken English. Good spelling a must!
– Previous personal or workplace experience with SEO
– Extensive knowledge of organic SEO principles and best practices
– Complete comfort with social media websites, both as a user and as an administrator.
– Ability to work with Excel, including manipulating formulas and creating charts.
– Experience with Google Analytics or another web analytics program.
– Experience with WordPress interface or the ability to demonstrate familiarity with similar interfaces.
– Previous experience working in a client-facing position is a plus.

Interested candidates should include the following information in an email, along with your resume:
– A brief summary of your relevant background experience
– 2 writing samples, preferably business writing
– Compensation requirements

About our company:
Gravity Search Marketing is a boutique SEO and social marketing firm, specializing in thoughtful, high-touch consultation for clients ranging from one-person operations to household names.

Our guiding principles:
– We convey information to clients in a way that is easy to understand, and that reflects a strong understanding of their goals, priorities, and capabilities.
– We do careful and thorough work, and we provide the flawless attention to details that our clients wish they had time to do themselves.
– We deliver only meaningful recommendations, and only actionable findings.
– All of our work is completely transparent to our clients.

This is a part time, hourly position. Salary and benefits are negotiable based on experience.

Contact information here.

New Developments This Week in Google and Bing

Gravity Search Marketing is Hiring!

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