During Episode 32 of our Hump Day Hangouts, a viewer asked the question: Do you use FCS Networker to syndicate content?
Watch the video clip from the webinar for the answer – and let us know if and how you use FCS Networker. It's a powerful tool with lots of options – great for backlinking and doing things like video embeds or posting to properties not connected via IFTTT. It's on our list of recommended resources for SEO tools (and we all own a license!).
During Hump Day Hangout, Episode 30, we had a question about downloading client videos and uploading them to our own, more powerful, YouTube channels and what issues may exists (duplicate content, etc). Watch this short clip from the video to find out more!
There have been a few updates to Google's algorithm in the past two months. Two of which were publicized; the Doorway Page Update which is mentioned below by Barry Schwartz from the 1:oo minute – 2:06 minute mark, and the Mobile Friendly Site Update. There may have also been an update that hasn't been officially declared, dubbed as Phantom 2.
With the Mobile Friendly Update being the one that got the most attention, the Doorway Pages update almost went unnoticed for much of the SEO world. But it looks like some of the major business directory sites took a bit of a beating recently which may be attributed to the Doorway Pages update.
Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide shares some data he has been tracking here:
Perhaps SEMRush is still updating but if its organic search traffic graphs are even close to accurate it looks like May is the month that Google took care of all Local family business:Read full article…
So if this this is the case and business directories have got caught up in this algo update, how does this affect us as SEO's? According to Bright Local in a recent survey they conducted, 31% of SEO's use business directory listings (a.k.a. citations) in their link building strategy:
A lot of local SEOs clearly see citations as having dual benefit. We know about the benefit of citations to local search ranking; 55% of experts say accurate citations are ‘critical’ to local search ranking, and listing your business on important niche, local, or national directories – even without a link – has direct benefit on local ranking. But now we can see that 31% also view citations as an important link building tactic.
Citations do not have to include a link, only a mention or form of NAP. A citation with a link is seen as an added bonus. However it must be noted that although a business listing without a link on a low ranking directory will not harm your site… the same cannot be said for low quality directories where you do have a link.
If you are using citations for link building, you must be more discerning about the sites on which you are listed on.
So does this mean SEO's should stop building citations? Hardly. What it does mean is that those links may not generate as much traffic as they previously did before the Doorway Page update affected the directory sites. I certainly still plan on using citations for backlinks and NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) mentions, but expect that they will have less overall influence on ranking for local terms now.
Some additional points to consider to keep from getting caught in the Doorway Page update ourselves are also outlined here by Andrew Shotland:
5 Ways Sites Can Dodge Google’s Doorway Page Update
While Google’s mobile-friendliness algorithm update seems to have captured the lion’s share of pageview-pumping SEO posts, the doorway page update has seen relatively few screaming SEO headlines. Thus, I thought I’d give the poor, ignored algorithm its due.
Last month, Google announced that it would be releasing a “ranking adjustment” to deal with doorway pages, noting that this update would have “a broad impact” on sites utilizing doorway campaigns.
I have heard a few rumblings here and there — and I have definitely seen “Gateway Page” warnings in Google Webmaster Tools in the past — but I have seen no evidence that this update has been released, particularly no “broad impact” evidence, so there may still be time to avoid this one if you are at risk. Here are some steps you can take.Read more…
So although it isn't conclusive yet as to whether the Doorway Page update has caused directories to be deprecated, I would assume that they will have less overall SEO value going forward. Another good reason to keep a robust SEO and backlinking strategy with diversified sources.
2. What is your favorite CDN setup for a money site?
Dealing with Google Dance
16:00 How to you deal with Google dance? I really didn't care about it when I was only into affiliate SEO but now that I do client work as well, seeing rankings for the the keywords and related expressions I am targeting go down makes me feel very anxious. I know they are supposed to go up later, but that's a lot of stress and it makes me wonder whether I made the right backlinking decisions.
1:45 Announcement: YouTube Silo Academy Launching. Learn how to silo your channel via playlists so that you can have even more ranking power for your videos. Academy is here: http://youtube.silo.academy
YouTube Video Reference Guide
6:30 Announcement: Semantic Mastery YouTube Video Reference Guide available on Kindle. Free through 2/22/2015. Includes discount code for YouTube Silo Academy. Leave us a review if you like it! You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TPZN3OQ
11:50 Let say that I search for ‘orthodontist, Orlando, FL' is then “orthodontist” while location is set to Orlando. The results vary greatly between those 2 searches. However, Google returns local results on both occasions. I've done some adwords testing in various niches and realized that there's a lot more searches for KW only than KW City or City KW. It seems that the algo is different for those 2 queries since I see different results. I have the “keyword + city” algo figured out. But I'm having trouble figuring out the KW only algo. I think that we really should since it's more important and more consumers search that way (based on my Adwords impressions). What do you guys think?
16:45 Is there any metadata for videos you think is useless and vice versa any metadata you think helps you rock out with your sock out (i.e. rank better). With your rss syndication plugin how does the “use a custom url” work? Do I just enter a url without the http:// and is that the url I enter in my IFTTT recipe for the rss feed?
Have you been building links to your websites and/or videos but not seeing the results you were expecting? Or maybe you have been checking your sites with SEO analysis tools and don't see many of the links that you have been building…
Backlinks can sometimes take weeks to get indexed. This is especially true for web 2.0 links.
And if you have been using IFTTT networks as part of your link building strategy (and you are, aren't you?), then a large portion of your links are coming from web 2.0 sites.
It is difficult to get these links indexed naturally, or it take weeks to happen. Who has time for that?
We were using a combination of a powerful WordPress plugin and a really good indexing service to force our links to be indexed and it worked like gangbusters. Oh, and did I mention that it was completely automated?
Sadly, Baclink Commando is no longer available 🙁
I know, sad horn…
Anyways, when one method doesn't work it's time to find another one – or make your own, right?
So, if you want to get backlinks indexed you need a solid solution that can last for a long time and work as good as before – well, hopefully it does!
What we decided on was to integrate a backlink indexing service into Serp Space[go ahead and hop over there – you can create your free account if you don't have one yet].
This way, we didn't have to have seperate backlink indexing software and could continue to use Serp Space.
As always, things are constantly in development at Serp Space and we'll be pushing to automate more and make the indexing service even better – how about things like automatically grabbing your Syndication Network post URLs and adding them to your indexing account?
Pretty awesome!
So, while you can't use Backlink Commando anymore, now's a great time to start using the Serp Space Indexer.
