Matt Mauldin

Here’s an update to yesterday’s post, Google’s New SERP Page Design – Bad News for SEM?

I can’t login to Google Analytics this morning for some reason (see the reason here) and did a quick search on Google to see what the problem was.  The initial results didn’t show anything, so I tried out the new “Latest” filter to show only the most recent results.  Here’s the SERP:

This was a big help because I easily found other users having the exact same problem at the same time I was.  That immediately ruled out my browser, computer, internet connection or anything else related to me.

So this is pretty useful for me as an individual, but again doesn’t help me as a SEM trying to sell products or gather leads.

Popularity: 15% [?]

I’ve been in the middle of a few PPC and SEO projects today and have been using Google almost every minute of the day.  Around 4:30 CST today Google updated their page design.

Google’s old page design:

Google’s new page design:

I was still able to pull up the old design in Chrome.  I was checking some cookie tracking, and right after I removed all cookie data from Firefox, I noticed the new design.  And I’ve been clearing my cookies frequently the past couple of days to re-test tracking, so this is a very recent update from Google.

Search Filters

Google is now putting a column of filters on the left of the SERPs – but they are the same as the ones along the top-left.  They have, however, added a “recommended tools” section below that that allows users to choose page images, or fewer or more shopping results.  Users can then click “more options” and filter by timeframe, geo-location (you set your location just below the search box), standard view and timeline (very odd), or a few more standard page options.

Geolocation Filter

When I searched for “shoes” and used the “nearby” filter, Google pulled out the top results and replaced them with local listings – mostly superpages and citypages.  But there were a few results from local stores in my area that would not have come up on page 1 without this filter.  And after I chose “nearby”, options to refine my location filter even further appeared, including the ability to choose a custom location, or my default location.  I could also choose to filter by city, region or state.

Timeline filter

The first thought I had was “useless”.  Unless I’m doing some research for a mid-term or my thesis, I don’t want to get the complete history of shoes because I’m probably looking to buy some new ones.  Here’s ascreenshot below, and let’s see how long this option lasts:

Recency Filter

Google’s options to filter by time looks like their big answer to integrate comments and social conversations.

More filter options

The other two filtering options of note are the Page Images (showing thumbnails of images on the page) and Page Preview (shows a preview of the page to the right of the Title & Description).  Both of these features are not new for a search engine.  I consulted with a startup-search engine that had a good implementation of the page preview feature in early 2007.

Google Page Images

Google Page Preview

The big picture for Search Engine Marketing

What I did notice is that each time I chose a new filter, the ads reloaded, meaning a new pageview for each advertiser on the page.  And Ads were not filtered; they were either reloaded or removed on certain filters like the timeline.  This means every advertiser received another impression each time, without further filtering the ads.  Unfortunately, might mean lower Click Through Rates and lower Quality Scores.  I’ll be watching my campaigns closely to see if there are any changes as more Google users are switched to the new interface.

Popularity: 20% [?]

A targeted, responsive, op-in (fully CANSPAM compliant) email list can springboard your new internet business to success faster than you can imagine. Here’s how I used WordPress to put together a 1 page site to collect emails and provide a little content until I have time to get to them.

There are two domains that have been sitting in my registrar account for quite a while now, but I haven’t done anything with them.  The finished sites are BassOutfitter.com and FanChair.com – they are build using the same process, so don’t expect much difference (it’s just a splash page, rememter).

So why should you take the time to set something like this up?  Several reasons:

• Domain age – the age of a domain is considered to be a small factor for SEO.  All things equal, take two domains targeted for the same keyword, and the older domain will rank higher.  Of course all things are never equal, but every little bit you can do helps when your are trying to rank well in the SERPS.
• Content – I can provide a small amount of targeted content on the site.  It’s just the domain name in an H1 tag, META info, and a couple of paragraphs, but that’s all I need right now to put three good, targeted keywords on the page several times.
• I am collecting email addresses.  Opt-in email lists are a great way to increase revenue for your site.  By building a targeted email list, you can greatly increase your profit per visitor by gathering long-term, repeat customers.
• I’m too busy right now.  Yep, but one site is an extension of work I’m already doing… the next evolution, if you will.  The other is a business idea that I’ve been thinking about for years, and am very excited about once I can get to it.

The Rundown:

Here’s a quick step-by-step to tell you exactly what I did.  Hopefully you can put this to good use on some of your dormant domains.

1. Install Wordpress & do the standard config stuff (permalinks, blog name, analytics & other basic stuff)
2. Install a Theme I like – I chose one that would have a good, strong content page with a wigitized sidebar and footer.
3. Build my “Action Page” – Create a new page and put a little content telling users that visit the site what is is about, when it’s coming, and a call to action.  Mine was sign up for an email when the site launches.
4. Set Static Page – Go to Settings > Reading and set the front page to your Action page.
5. Remove Navigation – You don’t want any other pages on the site – only the one with the call to action.
6. Install Opt-In Plugin – Set up one widget that can collect email addresses.  MailChimp has a good Wordpress plugin.  Then set this as the only widget in the sidebar.

That’s it. Now you have a great looking placement page that will work for you collecting email addresses while you build your site.  Check mine out here:

BassOutfitter.com - Bass Outfitter will carry the stuff that we use personally and recommend. Great fishing gear, killer lures, awesome accessories, and all the stuff you need to catch a lunker.

FanChair.com – Fan Chair will bring you the best stadium seat available.

Popularity: 67% [?]

If you’ve logged into your Google Webmaster Tools lately, you’ll notice at the top of the page an option to “check out our new look.”  Why re-do the look?  According to Google:

“we’ve constantly been adding and updating new features. The result was a set of tools we’re pretty proud of—but also a site that had become pretty unwieldy and often difficult to navigate. That’s why we decided to redesign Webmaster Tools from the ground up.”

Here’s a quick preview from Google’s post about the new look:

My Thoughts on the New Look

I’ve only spent a little time kicking around, but the new site is pretty good. The first thing you’ll notice is a different home page showing all the sites you have verified in your account.  The Sitemaps link and the verify columns have been removed.  Instead there’s a “details” link on the right that takes you to your verification page and also has some helpful information about verifying your site for yourself, for multiple users, and what verification means.  This is helpful because just a few weeks ago I had to dig around Googls help docs to find out how to allow a site in more than one account. (the answer: upload a verification file for each user you want verified and that site will be accessible from that persons account.)   If your site is not verified, the details link is not there, but shows a “verify my site” link instead.

The best enhancement is the Dashboard, which has replaced the Overview, for each individual site.  Following suit with the redesigns of AdWords and Analytics last year, Google provides a dashboard of some common data, specifically the Top Search Queries, Crawl errors, Links to your site, and Sitemaps reports.

The navigation has been redesigned from six top menu items to three collapsable menues.  That immediately speeds up navigation because you don’t have to reload a page to get to a report from a submenu.  Nice.

Most of the reports remain unchanged, although they have been cleaned up or enhanced a little bit.  Still, you’ll recognize most of the same information.  For example, the Keyword report shows the top 200 most common keywords, where previously you could only see the top 100 keywords, and the external links is easier to read and shows more pages at a time.

One item I’m still not sure with is the dropdown menu that switches between websites.  Previously, all websites were shown except the one you were currently viewing, and only a few were shown at a time.  The old menu made it a little weird to quickly know where you currently were and if you wanted to move up or down.  This new menu, though, does not contain all of the sites.  Instead, the new menu only shows up to the last six site profiles you have visited, and a “View All” link that takes you back to the home page.  I’ve got 21 sites in my account, so this requires me to go back to the home page if I’m reviewing more that the most recent sites.  And I do so at least on a weekly basis.  But for the most part I stick to only four or five sites.  That’s why the verdict isn’t in on this feature for me yet.  I’ll have to spend some more time with it befoce coming to a final decision – not that I could change it at this point anyway.

Popularity: 51% [?]

I just added and configured a great 404 error plugin called AskApache Google 404. It changes my 404 error page from a simple “Page Not Found” message to an excellent page of links back to relevant pages on my blog.

I was playing around with some demo software on a subdirectory and there were a couple of times I typed in the wrong subdomain.  My default 404 error page popped up instead of what I expected.  After this happened a couple of times, it struck me how bland and absolutly useless my error page was. So I found the AskApache Google 404 plugin and just got it configured.

It works great!  See an example of my new 404 error page here,  or here’s a screenshot:

Installation

Easy!

I was able to download, install, and configure the whole plugin in less than 5 minutes.  It does require a Google AJAX Search API, but that’s easy enough to get with your Google account. (If you don’t have a Google account by now, you are seriously behind.)

Here are the install steps:

1. Download and activate the plugin
2. Add your Google API key in the given blank in the settings page and save.
3. Insert a line of PHP code to your 404.php file in your WordPress template, and a couple of lines of code to your .htaccess file.

Be careful, though.  There was an error in the PHP that is given to place into your 404.php file.  It was missing a “?” just before the final “>”.  I’m going to message the plugin author to mention it and to thank him for the great plugin.

Customization

The default width of the search results are 750 px wide with no margin.  I need 600 px wide with a 17px margin on the left.  Thankfully this plugin allows you to easily edit the HTML, CSS and JS that controls the search listing display from within the admin settings page.

I changed this line in the HTML:

<div style="width:750px;overflow:hidden;margin-left:0;">

to this:

<div style="width:600px;overflow:hidden;margin-left:17px;">

That fixed the width of the search results container to fit in my left column, but it also squeesed the text results on top of the video/image listings on the right.  That was easily changed in the CSS.  I found this:

#rDiv {width:500px; min-height:400px;}

and changed it to:

#rDiv {width:450px; min-height:400px;}

And that was it.  Now I’ve got a functional 404 error page that will help visitors reach relevant pages, search engines to find my content easier, and keep me from getting annoyed as much when I type a wrong URL.

Popularity: 32% [?]