Jill Whalen (c) 2012 Have you heard of Google's Authorship program yet? Whether you've heard of it or not, you've likely seen its fruits in the search results. You know those listings that have a photo of the author next to them? Most likely they get that extra cool stuff because they're using Rel=Author correctly and Google has accepted them to participate. Unfortunately, it's been a bit hit-or-miss as to whether your content gets accepted or not. I saw mine accepted for a day or two many months ago, and then *poof!* it was gone. I reviewed their new guidelines recently, however, made a few changes, and sure enough, within a week or so, my content started showing up... yay! While you may or may not get your content into the program, the only way to know is to try, and persistence is definitely a key. If you're thinking it's just not worth the trouble, here are 5 reasons why it's super important: 1. It's Kinda Sorta Easy to Implement. While it is a bit confusing to figure out exactly how to enable authorship based on Google's directions(which seem to keep changing), in reality their latest criteria have made it easier than ever to implement. I'm not going into the specifics on how to do it, because you can follow Google's directions. Suffice it to say that the main things you need are a Google Profile page that links to the website where you have author status, and a link back from your website's home page to your Google Profile page. You can also have an "author page," such as the About Us page on your website, as long as your Google profile page links to that page. Once you've got that all implemented, every time you write an article, simply link your name in your byline to either your Google Profile page or your author page with the Rel=Author code, as I have here: By <a href="http://www.highrankings.com/jill-whalen" rel="author">Jill Whalen</a> - Example Page Be sure to add the Rel=Author tag to as many of your old content articles as well, especially ones that you know show up well in the search results. While Google has moved toward having you link directly to your Google Profile page in your Rel=Author links (as opposed to your author page) to make things less confusing, I still link to my author page, and it works fine. If you go this route, be sure to follow their older, more confusing instructions as well. 2. It Makes Your Content Stand Out. Imagine if you could put big stars around your content listings in Google's search results that everyone would see. Rel=Author does exactly that! Only it's not stars, but your name and photo. Before Rel=Author became widespread, only logged-in users and those who participated in socialmedia might see a little profile photo of you if they happened to search on something that you had tweeted about. But with Rel=Author implemented correctly, even users who aren't logged into their Google accounts or their social media accounts will still see the rich author information and photo . This is huge, folks, and this reason alone makes it worth figuring out the implementation. 3. Provides Credibility And More Exposure. Beyond just seeing my smiling face in the listings for my content, as you can see in this screenshot, Google is also showing how many people have circled me on Google+ as well as a "More by Jill Whalen" link. Clicking that link shows more information about me from my Google Profile, plus posts I've made on Google+ related to the search query, and all the other articles that I've written on the subject. I've also seen them show articles others have written on the subject that reference me in one way or another. 4. Higher Clickthrough Rate. I'd say this one goes without saying, due to all of the above factors. It would be difficult to *not* click on the listing that Google is screaming for you to click on. Time will tell on this one, but so far it appears that since my authorship status started to show up in the Google results (it's less than 2 weeks now), I've been getting more traffic for certain articles. 5. Additional Metrics in Webmaster Tools. As if all of the above weren't enough, once you have your authorship up and running and showing up in Google results, you'll also see new author stats in your Webmaster Tools account . (Look under "Labs.") The information there shows you approximately how many times each of your content pages showed up in the search results (impressions) and approximately how many times it was clicked on, along with other interesting details that you can't really get elsewhere. Of course, Google has their own selfish reasons for giving us all of this awesomeness. Their number-one priority this year is Google+ and all that surrounds it. Rel=Author provides anyone who creates online content with a darn good reason (make that 5!) to create a Google Profile. And the more people who do that, the more who might start using Google+, especially if they want to get those circle numbers up as mentioned in #3 above. Add Comment Pin Etiquette(Original Post : https://pinterest.com/about/etiquette/ ) Pinterest is special because of the people who use it.The guidelines below are based on collective input from people using Pinterest. These are suggestions to help keep our community positive and to ensure that every pin is useful to other people. Be NicePinterest is a community of people. We know that tastes are personal, but be respectful in your comments and conversations. Credit Your SourcesPins are the most useful when they have links back to the original source. If you notice that a pin is not sourced correctly, leave a comment so the original pinner can update the source. Finding the original source is always preferable to a secondary source such as Google Image Search or a blog entry. Avoid Self PromotionPinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion. Report Objectionable ContentWe do not allow nudity or hateful content. If you find content that is objectionable or violates our Terms of Service can submit the content for review by pushing the “Report Content” link. Tell Us How to Make Pinterest BetterWe're just getting started, so there are going to be bumps here and there. Let us know what's working, what's not. We take your input seriously. You can get in touch with us anytime:
 INNOVATION AND JOB NEWS Branches PSP To Do Marketing For Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Build TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2011 RELATED TAGS : MARKETING Branches PSP will be handling the regional marketing for an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition filmed on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The Annapolis-based professional services company is working in concert with the Fusion Companies and other businesses to donate services that will make one family's dream of owning the home that they need into a reality. "The news of actually landing the project was really out of the blue. We had no advance notice, no time to prepare, no time to get a game plan together. Then, we pulled ourselves together, counted to 10, took a deep breath and started with one foot in front of the other. We've been thinking on our feet and making things happen in real time ever since. It helps that everyone involved is for the right reasons. No one is taking on this enormous challenge for profit or personal gains. We all want to do this because we are all about building and strengthening communities," says Shawn Cochran, Owner of Branches PSP. The company became involved in the EMHE project through a business relationship with The Fusion Companies, one of their oldest clients. Since the launch of the project, and through the build, Branches has helped to rally support and get Maryland businesses to donate to the cause. "I speak for everybody involved in this project when I say that this will change all of us forever. The people and the businesses that are bending over backwards to help a truly beautiful family find their way home is awe inspiring," continues Cochran. The next project for Branches PSP will be to launch a website for the Eastport Gallery. The art gallery is dedicated to preserving the work of iconic area photographer M.E Warren, who is best known for photographs of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Annapolis, and Baltimore. Writer: Amy McNeal Source: Shawn Cochran, Branches PSP What'sUp Magazine dubs Branches PSP Owner, Jen Cochran as one of the "People to Watch 2012". 01/02/2012
Click on the "Download File" link below to view the article in your browser. Or, visit the What's Up Magazine website to read the article. 
 Jennifer Cochran - as featured in the January issue of What'sUp Magazine : "People to Watch 2012". Another video shout out 12/09/2011
VIDEO SHOUT OUT from Lori!! 12/09/2011
Brown Eyed Girl Annapolis website is live! 11/22/2011
What a beautiful website for such a unique, beautiful shop in downtown Annapolis! Visit the Brown Eyed Girl Annapolis website and let us know what you think! Holiday website refresher - special pricing. 11/15/2011
SHOPPING SEASON IS HERE! If you plan to aggressively pursue holiday shopping business, you MUST take a look at how people will find your business, what they will see when they find you, and whether or not making a purchase with you is n absolute "no-brainer". Is your website absolutely the best among your competitors??? Success doesn't just fall into your lap. You MUST pursue success doggedly, do everything you possibly can to be successful, and take the initiative to be consistently vigilant. Call Branches PSP for a FREE WEBSITE EVALUATION between now and December 1st. We'll let you know where you can improve your efforts - even if it means we won't be paid a dime. Why? Because we *always* empower our clients to do work on their own. We work harder for referrals than anything else - period. Give us a call NOW if you want to get your business in line for holiday business - before it's too late!! Shawn 443-837-8087  How Should Webmasters React to Google "Fresh"? A SPN Exclusive Article By Titus Hoskins (c) 2011 It's been an extremely busy year for the good folks at Google, not only did they roll out the game-changing Panda Updates, but now they have increased the stakes by implementing Google Fresh. This recent algorithm update is based on the Caffeine architecture introduced by Google a year ago and supposedly makes Google's listings much fresher. On the Official Google Blog where this new Update was announced, Amit Singhal states: "We completed our Caffeine web indexing system last year, which allows us to crawl and index the web for fresh content quickly on an enormous scale. Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we're making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness." However, in an update, Singhal explains this measurement of 35% only applies to where at least one result was affected by the changes. In reality, this update only "noticeably" impacts 6 to 10% of searches. "Update 11/7/11: To clarify, when we say this algorithm impacted 35% of searches, we mean at least one result on the page was affected, as opposed to when we've said noticeably impacted in the past, which means changes that are significant enough that an average user would notice. Using that same scale, this change noticeably impacts 6 - 10% of searches, depending on the language and domain you're searching on." Regardless, Google Fresh will be influencing what sites/pages get listed in the top spots in Google. Already, these fresher listings are popping up for keyword searches where products or services are constantly changing or evolving such as in consumer electronics. How Should Webmasters React to Google Fresh? For the average webmaster or business site owner, this Update will probably mean they will have to examine how often their content is updated. Adding new fresh content has definitely become more important to your site and to your overall marketing strategy. However, for the small business owner with limited resources, constantly adding new content is not really feasible. These small sites won't be able to compete with major websites which have hundreds of writers or content contributors. Keeping up will simply be too costly or too time consuming for many small business site owners. Create Blogs and Forums Hiring someone or outsourcing your content creation is one option, but in many cases this content is not of the highest quality, which sort of defeats the whole intention. Many SEO experts are already suggesting one way to keep offering up fresh quality content is to run a blog and/or a forum on your site. Blogs are excellent sources of fresh content and with their RSS feeds broadcasting your news means it is fast and immediate. Blogs are also very search engine friendly so tagging and indexing your content is already built-in and ready to go. They also create a Timestamp with your content so that it can be easily dated and assessed by the search engines. Having a membership forum or site, where members contribute fresh content, is another viable option for web owners. Appointing moderators to oversee this content is probably a good idea to ensure quality standards and to cut down on spam. Create Active Online Communities Along those same lines, another good idea is to create an active online community around your blog, site or any one of the social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or perhaps Google+. Announcing fresh content to these communities, especially if they are large and active, will get your content noticed by Google. These social networks are designed to quickly pass fresh news or information along to all concerned and can be a great way to get your message out quickly and easily. Google+ has now opened up their service to accept brands, so you can have an account for your site or business. Create a Current Sitemap Any webmaster, no matter how small their site, can create a simple XML Sitemap of their site and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools. Make sure when you create any new content or pages, the new URLs are placed on your sitemap. This can be done manually or you can set up a server-side application or program which does this automatically. If you want help creating a sitemap [give us a call]. Do Press Releases With the introduction of Google Fresh, having your site or business regularly do press releases is a given. These releases are immediately picked up by Google and indexed. These releases can also be very SEO friendly so you can optimize them for your site's targeted keywords. Places like PRWeb are extremely professional but they are expensive. There are also free press releases sites or services which you can use to get your fresh content out there. [BUT we highly recommend you get professional help!] Don't Forget Google News Sites You may or may not be aware that Google keeps a list of hand-picked news sites which they regularly crawl and index. These sites have passed Google's standards and requirements, so they are excellent places to submit your content. Especially if you have a new site, getting Google to index and crawl your content will take some time, so placing your content and links on any of these Google News Sites may be worth the extra effort since it will help speed up the whole indexing process. Give Google What Google Wants Finally, don't forget to keep adding fresh quality content to your site on a regular basis. Regardless of your field, industry or subject matter, there is usually a constant flow of news associated with your topic, so placing a "news" section on your site may also help with Google Fresh. Time and time again, those sites and webmasters who give Google what Google wants, reap the biggest rewards. About The Author All views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, Titus Hoskins, who is a full time search engine marketer. He earns his living by ranking high in the search engines for lucrative keywords. His main site offers Free Guides on everything associated with running a business from Corporate Business Gifts to Online Fax Providers to Internet Marketing Tools. ### Branch Out, the Branches PSP newsletter, will be going out this week. We have a lot to say about Google "Fresh" - as it has us seriously adjusting our strategy for SEO. WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS ABOUT THIS APPARENT CHANGE IN SEO DIRECTION. Please post below! Yours, Shawn Cochran & the Branches PSP family ~ |  AuthorShawn Cochran is the Owner, Creative Prodigy at Branches PSP where we make websites *work*. ArchivesApril 2012 CategoriesAll | ||
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