Here is a great straight forward video on the major Google SEO changes coming fourth in the near and far future. As always a lot is quite vague and secretive but for the most part you can weed out some important details. As always they are discouraging away from buying links that claim to raise your PageRank.

Cutts is careful to note that any of this information is subject to change, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Penguin

He does not specify any of the changes but says a new big version (2.0) is getting closer.

Updates To Panda

It sounds like they are becoming more friendlier in the new update. Sites in the grey area will not just get thrown to the wolves. They also claim links will not be as bad if they are from a spammy site. As long as it’s not your main source of identity, after all it’s not rocket science to submit your competitors sites to hurt their Rank.

Authority Sites

They will be adding more weight on the sites that have an “authority”. We have no idea what this is based on but my guess is the companies with the highest ad-words revenue lol. Bigger rarely means better in my experience, in fact it’s new independent thinkers that keep the internet perpetual.

I assume this authority will put more emphasis on forums and blogs, so track down the top ones in your industry and get involved!

Of course those are probably ran by an objective competitor anyways, just tread lightly and you might be able to talk a little about your site.

Searches with high spam rate.

Terms that get the highest spam will be targeted as well, hopefully web hosting will be added for our sake lol. Half the front page for the term “Web Hosting” is fake top ten web hosting sites!

My two cents.

It sounds like they are getting smarter and a little less cruel to the little guy. I also really liked how they mention that one site will not have more then one link on the first couple pages of Google. I feel like Matt Cutts is a well grounded person and understands the importance of helping new webmasters, hopefully we will see a new system that can separate new domains with spam and new domains with real sites trying to work their way up fairly.

For organic SEO help check out our services here: SEO

Good luck!
Charles Yarbrough

Facebook slowly becoming known as the do anything for money internet business attempts to hit Google below the belt but gets caught.

It seems like the ongoing rivalry between Facebook and Google has taken a turn for the subversive. Last night, a spokesman for the social network confirmed to the Daily Beast that Facebook paid a top PR firm to spread anti-Google stories across the media and to encourage various outlets to examine allegations that the Mountain View company was violating user privacy. The PR firm, Burson-Marsteller, even offered to help blogger Chris Soghoian write a critical op-ed piece about Social Circle — a service that allows Gmail users to access information on so-called “secondary connections,” or friends of their friends. Social Circle, in fact, seems to have been at the epicenter of Facebook’s smear campaign. In a pitch to journalists, Burson described the tool in borderline apocalyptic terms:

“The American people must be made aware of the now immediate intrusions into their deeply personal lives Google is cataloging and broadcasting every minute of every day-without their permission.”

Soghoian thought that Burson’s representatives were “making a mountain out of a molehill,” so he decided to prod them about which company they might be working for. When Burson refused to spill the beans, Soghoian went public and published all of the e-mails sent between him and the firm. USA Today picked up on the story, before concluding that any claims of a smear campaign were unfounded. The Daily Beast’s Dan Lyons, however, apparently forced Facebook’s hand after confronting the company with “evidence” of its involvement. A Facebook spokesman said the social network hired Burson to do its Nixonian dirty work for two primary reasons: it genuinely believes that Google is violating consumer privacy and it also suspects that its rival “may be improperly using data they have scraped about Facebook users.” In other words, their actions were motivated by both “altruistic” and self-serving agendas, though we’d be willing to bet that the latter slightly outweighed the former. Google, meanwhile, has yet to comment on the story, saying that it still needs more time to wrap its head around everything — which might just be the most appropriate “no comment” we’ve ever heard.

You know there’s going to be a showdown over some communications technology issue when Google, Best Buy, Mitsubishi, Sony, TiVo and two other big companies start a new group with the word “alliance” in it. Sure enough, the septet has announced that they’ve united to defend the Federal Communications Commission’s new proposal for an “AllVid” standard that would make it easier for consumers to watch both pay television and the video they get from their home broadband network on the same screen.

Thus has been born the “AllVid Tech Company Alliance”—named in honor of the FCC’s suggested gateway interface.

“It is essential for the Commission to break down the wall separating the home network from [pay TV] networks—not just poke a few holes in it, or rely on progress on the peripheries,” the Alliance wrote to the FCC on Wednesday. “The seeds for real competition must emerge in chips, technologies, and interfaces that can be organic to tens of millions of products, services, and consumer uses—not just those presently conceived, but those that innovative minds, and users who can select and adapt their own devices, can conceive.”

How would AllVid break down this wall? FCC Chair Julius Genachowski described the gadget ten months ago, indicating cable, satellite, or telco video providers would send their signals to “a small adapter on the customer’s premises that would present a standard interface to all consumer devices.”

AllVid could be connected to TVs, computers—pretty much anything that can show multichannel video or Internet fare. Thus Internet and multichannel TV would be integrated.

The FCC is proposing this as a replacement for its failed CableCard device—the data/security card that was supposed to let consumers pick their own set-top box. Its limited capabilities made it a flop on the video device market.
Ignoring legal rights?

Can you think of any high-profile consumer product that is just dying for this new standardized gizmo to become a fact on the ground? That’s right: Google TV. The HDTV system integrates Internet and pay TV content, but Google, Sony and the gang don’t want to spend years coaxing suspicious broadcasters, content providers, and cable networks into content deals. They want a device standard in which Internet and cable content are interchangeable now (or relatively close to now).

Needless to say, the cable companies are far less enthusiastic about this idea. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association has thrown a host of theoretical roadblocks in front of AllVid. “Sony/Google are asking the Commission to ignore copyright, patent, trademark, contract privity, licensing, and other legal rights and limitations that have been thoroughly documented,” the NCTA  warned the FCC last week.

Clearly, the AllVid Alliance is a response to the cable industry’s opposition to this idea.

“Despite some recent progress in making television smart and connected, unless the Commission pursues a gateway approach[,] consumers will not have the sort of open and innovative competitive market to which they are entitled,” the AllVid coalition told the FCC.

The group says it wants the Commission to make a specific AllVid plan available for public comment as soon as possible.

In the last few days alone, two top-level executives at the world’s largest online search company, Google, announced they would be stepping down from their posts due to personal reasons.

Chad Hurley, now 33 years old, was the first executive to announce he would step down from his position as the chief executive officer at YouTube, the same company he founded which was later acquired by the search giant for $1.65-billion in an all cash deal.

Mr. Hurley founded YouTube along with co-founders Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, who also had positions at Google but later left the company.

Mr. Hurley earned $345-million alone as a result of the Google acquisition, which included terms that he would continue working at the company as CEO.

Although Google consolidates revenue from its properties into a single account, executives previously said they expected YouTube to begin turning a profit in the short-run, confirming the almost six-year-old site is still not profitable.

Extensive operating costs and marginal advertising revenue in the economic downturn have made it a challenge for YouTube to turn a profit.

In the latest earnings conference discussion, Google said YouTube is now serving more than 2-billion videos every week.

Google faced litigation challenges over copyright infringement allegations made by publishers, but those lawsuits were dismissed as the company was found to have taken reasonable care to mitigate any losses by promptly removing indicated videos from YouTube.

In a clear attempt by Google to finally turn a profit for YouTube, the company has appointed Salar Kamangar to succeed Mr. Hurley as the new chief executive of YouTube effective now.

Mr. Kamangar will be responsible for growing YouTube by generating more revenue through content partnerships and by managing primary revenue streams like advertising, which generate less than 10-percent of total advertising revenue for Google annually.

In an attempt to generate more revenue, the company has experimented with new forms of advertising to increase click-through rates, such as by placing advertisements directly into videos, something users find very intrusive.

The Internet landscape has effectively changed as tech-savvy Internet users now click less on advertisements, and the value of ads has also decreased over the last few years as new advertising networks have emerged and as companies spend less due to increasing economic volatility.

Mr. Kamangar faces a challenging job ahead of him at netting the first profit for the company.

He needs to ensure the user experience at YouTube does not diminish in a frugal attempt to marginally increase click-rates from more intrusive ads.

Mr. Kamangar already works at Google as the vice president of Google Web Applications.

The company has not said if Mr. Kamangar would be the permanent new CEO at YouTube.

The second top executive at Google to be stepping down in the coming weeks is Omar Hamoui, who co-founded the mobile advertising network AdMob in 2006, the same company Google scooped up for $750-million last May.

In this article I show you my top twelve tips for creating effective Google AdWords Select ads. I’ve been testing the Google pay per click advertising system for a while, with much success. These tips will help you create ads that generate higher click through rates, and lower cost per click.

1. Target The Right Audience

Target the right audience by selecting the language and countries that you want to target. For example, I exclude all countries where English is not understood by a large percentage of the population.

2. Refine Your Keywords

Use square brackets “[...]” around your keyword/s.

For example:

[google]
[google adwords]

Your ad will only show when the search is for the exact keyword phrase you have included within the brackets.

The ad will not show for searches that include other keywords. In our example, this would be for searches such as “google search,” or “google news.”

3. Test Multiple Ads Simultaneously

Always test 2 (or more) ads simultaneously. This is what is known in the print industry as an A/B split test.

Find out which one produces the higher click through ratio. Then replace the weaker performing ad with a new one.

Continue this process in your never-ending quest to get the highest click through ratio possible.

4. Track The Return-On-Investment Of Each Ad

Google tracks the click through ratio of each ad. But it doesn’t track the conversion ratio.

Use a special tracking link in each ad to track its conversion ratio. For example, you could attach each ad with an affiliate tracking system link. Make sure each ad produces a return-on-investment.

5. Include Targeted Keywords In Your Ad

Include the targeted keywords in the headline and the description of the ad. Google will highlight searched keywords in bold in the ad.

When people scan search results, they look for the keywords they have entered. Searched keywords highlighted in bold certainly help to catch the user’s attention. For this reason, ads with searched keywords usually perform better than ones without.

6. Sell The Benefits

Spell out one or more major benefits in your ad. For example, make more money, stay younger looking, lose weight, get healthier, live happier, etc.

7. Include Attention Grabbing Words In Your Ad

Start your headline with an attention grabbing word. For example, “Free:, New:, Sale:, etc.” Make sure you stay within Google’s editorial guidelines.

8. Use Words That Provoke Emotion & Enthusiasm

Use power words or call-to-action phrases that provoke emotion, enthusiasm and a response.

Here are some examples of power words:

free, cheap, sale, special offer, time limited offer, tricks, you, tips, enhance, discover, fact, learn, at last, free shipping, etc.

Here are some examples of call-to-action phrases:

* Buy Today – Save 50%
* Download Free Trial Now
* Sale Ends Tomorrow

Make sure the phrase is specific to your business, otherwise Google may reject the phrase.

9. Sell Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

What makes your product or service better, or different, from the competition? Spell them out in your ad.

For example, one of Amazon.com’s first taglines was “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.” That’s a powerful USP!

10. Link To Relevant Landing Pages

If an ad is for a specific product or service, create a landing page for the ad. Include relevant and useful information to convert the customer. Generally, a well designed landing page will almost always convert more visitors than if you simply sent the visitor to the home page.

11. Remove Common Words

Remove common words, such as “a, an, in, on, it, of”, etc. Remove every word that does not absolutely need to be in the ad. Make every word count.

12. Deter Freebie Hunters

Deter freebie hunters by including the price of the product or service at the end of the ad. This will improve your overall conversion ratio and lower your average customer acquisition cost.

This may reduce your click through ratio, but that’s OK. After all, you’re not trying to target everybody, only potential customers. In most cases, freebie hunters will never become paying customers.

Conclusion

Remember that advertising is a never-ending series of tests. Always track your ads. Never stop testing different keywords and ads to improve your conversion ratio and lower your customer acquisition cost.

Advertising in Google’s AdWords Select advertising system works. It may not necessarily produce as many visitors as Overture, but the click through cost can be lower.

Master the art of advertising in Google, and you could outsmart the competitor who’s always outbidding you in Overture ;o) ?