In what should help satisfy a question on the minds of a lot of SEOs — Google’s John Mueller has confirmed via a comment on Google+ there’s no loss in link authority when moving from HTTP to HTTPS.
This comes as a response to the recent news that Google will now default to indexing HTTPS pages when a duplicate HTTP version also exists.
Understandably, that led to some concern over whether or not link authority would be lost as a result of inbound links to HTTP pages no longer being counted. Now we have the answer, and the answer is no.
This was again confirmed on Twitter by Google’s Gary Illyes after SEJ’s Brent Csutoras reached out for clarification.
Google will count the collective signals from inbound links pointing to both the HTTP and HTTPS versions of a page. Moreover, this will be done automatically, so there’s no need to worry about redirects.
A huge question on people’s minds has been answered by two top executives at Google. Go ahead and move to HTTPS without worrying about loss of link signals. You may even get a rankings boost from it in the process.
Google Drive is pretty amazing as it is, but how can it be improved? With certain apps and extensions for Google Drive that integrate it with other services, you can make better use of the cloud storage service and do even more with it.
If you’re immersed in the Google/Chrome/Android system, you’ve probably got a bunch of files on Google Drive and you use Google Docs whenever possible. And if that’s the case, you’re going to love these extensions and apps to make better use of your Drive space and the files you keep there.
Note that some of these are really web apps with a Chrome app link, just as the official Google Drive and Google Sheets and Google Docs apps are, but they’re still worth installing (and bookmarking) to keep all the best tools at your fingertips in the Chrome App Launcher — especially if you’re using a Chromebook!
Kami (AKA Notable PDF)
Kami is one of many amazing PDF tools for Google Drive, but it also works with DOCX documents, PowerPoint files and popular image formats. It lets you annotate these documents and share them with Google Drive collaborators. It’s perfect for group research projects or researching personal projects, like weddings or renovations.
Music Player For Google Drive
If you keep audio files in your Google Drive storage (as opposed to in Google Play Music), you still want to be able to play them easily. There is an official Audio Player tool for playing your audio files, but it’s not for everyone. This extension lets you take those files and create a quick playlist you can save in a lightweight browser player.
Drive Template Gallery
Drive templates are a great way to get a particular type of document up and running quickly, and despite having a fantastic directory of templates, Google seems determined to obfuscate them from view so you forget they’re even there. This extension puts the template gallery back into the “Create” menu, so you’ll remember to check the template gallery before recreating the wheel.
DriveTunes
DriveTunes is yet another way to play your Google Drive audio files, but it’s a little more comprehensive. It loads up all of your available files (or whichever folders you want loaded) so you can browse them and play them really easily. As a Google Drive user, it’s an essential addition to the best music extensions for Chrome.
JoliCloud
JoliCloud is for people who use Google Drive along with a number of other cloud storage services. It lets you connect all of your accounts and search for files across them all at once. This is a neat service, but it’s just one of many ways you can manage multiple cloud storage spaces.
For instance, if you’re using a Chromebook you could always add these cloud storage services to your file system, then use your Chrome app launcher to search through them all.
Drive Notepad
This is mostly for Chromebook users, as they find there is a real need for an app that just lets you quickly add a few notes into a simple document. This is that app — plus, it syncs to Google Drive. It could be useful for anyone who wants synced notes.
Drive Migrator
If you’re setting up a new Google Apps account, you’ll note that you can’t change the owner of your old files to a new account. Instead, if you want to copy all your files to the new account, this tool is exactly what you need.
Drive Files To Dropbox
If you need to back up your Google Drive, the Drive Files to Dropbox extension will get you there. It downloads the files to your local hard drive and moves them to Dropbox, so you may find you need a lot of local drive space and bandwidth.
Translate For Drive
If you work with people on the other side of the world or have some other reason for needing to translate documents all the time, this is going to become your favorite tool. All you do is find your document on Google Drive and get a full translation immediately. Yes, you could cut-and-paste text into Google Translate, but this just makes things so much easier. Seriously, it’s the best thing for workplace translation since Gmail auto-translate.
DocuSign
DocuSign is the essential signing tool for Google Drive documents. If someone sends you any file that requires your signature, you can immediately add it and send the signed file right back to them — all within Google Drive.
It works the other way around too, in that if you want to ask for a signature on a Google document you can guide participants through the signing process using DocuSign. Use this for your banking, insurance, work, legal documents or whatever else life throws at you.
Gantter For Google Drive
Have you ever used Microsoft Project? Well, Gantter is a free cloud-based alternative that works almost exactly the same way and integrates seamlessly with Google Drive. You can easily attach Google Drive docs to your Gantt charts and save your Gantter files to Google Drive.
Besides being a solid project manager, Gantter also includes iCal export, easy Google-style collaboration and a collaborator chat, which makes it incredibly useful for group projects.
Simple Invoicing
Do you need a quick template to bill someone for a few hours of work? Would you want that invoice to appear in your Gmail ready to send? How about automatically logging the invoice in a Google Sheet? Simple Invoicing is a freelancer’s dream app. The only bad reviews this app gets is for the invoice itself being too simple, but it is absolutely perfect for simple invoicing, as it says.
LucidPress
If you’re a fan of InDesign, or just need a program to do the same things, LucidPress is your ideal Google Drive extension alternative, as it uses Google Drive seamlessly. Use it to make magazines, flyers, company reports or any other design work you’ve got planned. It’s entirely cloud-based and perfect for Chromebook usage.
Envelopes For Google Drive
If you ever need to do real-world posting of paper, you probably need a way to print up professional envelopes. This is basically the perfect envelope template maker for Google Docs, so you can get all the right information in the right places.
PDF Compressor – Small PDF
Of all the PDF converting tools out there, this is by far the most comprehensive and slick. Small PDF (AKA PDF Compressor) lets you grab files from your local drive, Google Drive or Dropbox, then manipulate them in all sorts of ways.
With Small PDF, you can convert Word documents, PowerPoint documents, Excel spreadsheets, and JPG images to PDF — or vice versa to convert PDFs to these file types. You can also make PDFs smaller, split them into multiple PDFs, merge them into one PDF, rotate PDFs, and protect or unlock PDFs.
What Else Should Google Drive Do in Chrome?
What more would you need Google Drive to do? Is there an app or Google Drive function that you really wish someone would emulate in a Chrome extension or app? Tell us!
Many people use Google as their go-to search engine, but some are more concerned about whether they can trust Google. While Google provides many services in exchange for data collection, some don’t see this as an even trade. Maybe you’re in that camp.
You could always use another search engine that’s privacy-focused (such as DuckDuckGo), but maybe you can’t pull yourself away from Google’s results. After all, Google is still the king of results.
Enter StartPage, a search engine that makes Google searches private. When you type your query, StartPage anonymously submits it to Google and displays the results back to you. By adding this middle man, your privacy is protected since Google is not placing tracking cookies on your browser or logging your IP address to associate you with those searches.
While StartPage doesn’t carry all of Google’s advanced features, it certainly isn’t barebones. You can search for images and videos anonymously, and a settings page allows you to change your theme, highlight your search terms on a page, and adjust other options.
StartPage provides a good combination of Google’s powerful Web searching and protecting your privacy. Like any search engine, it’s worth trying out for a week to see if it’s something you’d like to use long-term. If you’re concerned for privacy and didn’t love DuckDuckGo, StartPage might be for you.
Are you interested in trying StartPage? Do you use a different privacy-focused search engine? Let us know below!
Location bid adjustments are a Google AdWords feature that allows advertisers to show ads more or less frequently to potential customers in certain geographic areas. For instance, if you are running an AdWords campaign in the United States, you can use location bid adjustments to increase bids automatically for metropolitan areas, specific cities, states, or counties just to name a few of the currently available options. If you are targeting a city, you can set location bid adjustments for some or all of the zip codes to be more competitive in specific parts of town.
How to Set Up Adwords Location Bid Adjustments
Go to your campaign settings and click on “Location”. You will see something called “View location reports” with a drop down menu (see below). Click on the first option “What triggered your ad (geographic)”.
You can then choose the geographic area you are looking to analyze:
Here is an example of some of the data AdWords provides for cities. If you have conversion tracking set up, you will see the data in this window as well.
Available Metrics for Location Bid Adjustments
Adjusting bids is a great way to get the most out of your budget because it’s automated but can still be somewhat controlled by you. Whether you optimized for clicks, click-through-rate, or conversions, custom bid percentages are always useful.
In case you are wondering what data you will be able to see in the report, here is a brief overview of the most common columns:
Location type
Clicks
Impressions
CTR
Average CPC
Average CPM
Cost
Average. Position
View rate
Views
Average CPV
Conversion Metrics:
Converted clicks
Cost/converted click
Click conversion rate
Conversions
All conversions
View-through conversions
Cost/all conversions
All conversion rate
All conversion value
All conversion value/cost
Value/all conversions
Depending on how the campaigns are set up and what AdWords features you are using, these columns may differ.
This post originally appeared on International PPC, and is re-published with permission.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Brian A Jackson/Shutterstock.com All screenshots by Christina Baldassarre. Taken December 2015.
Merry Christmas Eve! Or the night before Christmas, however you choose to call it. The time has come again to follow Santa Claus on his journey as he brings presents to the good girls and boys around the world.
Thanks to this year’s Santa Tracker apps from Google and NORAD, you can see when he will be near your home. Here are the online tools you need.
Official NORAD Santa Tracker
Now in it’s 60th year, NORAD continues its tradition of tracking Santa’s whereabouts — especially on Christmas Eve. Read more about why NORAD tracks Santa as well as the spirit of voluntarism during this event.
In addition to tracking Santa, NORAD’s Santa Tracker offers games, movies, music, and more interactive fun. See NORAD’s Santa Tracker.
Official Google Santa Tracker
For many years Google powered NORAD’s Santa Tracker, but recently the search giant decided to go rogue and launch its own tracker.
How does one choose between the traditional Santa Tracker by NORAD, and the relatively new version offered by Google? Let’s take a look at what Google’s tracker has to offer.
In addition to games and videos, Google’s Santa Tracker can even teach you a bit of basic coding. Every day leading up to December 24 has opened up new games and other interactive features within Santa’s Village.
There’s a whole month’s worth of interactive content available now, plus the Santa Tracker itself. See Google’s Santa Tracker.
The History of Santa Tracking
For those wondering how this whole phenomenon of tracking Santa all begin, the SEJ team has done its research. Here is a brief history.
In 1955, a mistake lead to the Sears department store publishing the number of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center as the number people could use to contact Santa.
Instead of dismissing the calls, staff were instructed to give Santa’s “current location” to anyone that called. When the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) replaced CONAD in 1958, the tradition remained.
If you’re a more visual person, here is the history illustrated as an infographic:
Source: Norad Santa Tracker : The History of NORAD, Google & Santa [Infographic]
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the SEJ Team!
Featured Image Credit: Stokkete / Shutterstock.com Screenshots taken on 23/12/2015 by Author
Microsoft hates adware, T-Mobile hates YouTube, Google hates passwords, one Russian man hates Fallout 4, and Boston Dynamics hates you sleeping soundly in your bed at night.
Microsoft Tackles Insecure Adware
Microsoft has committed to tackling insecure adware, promising to detect and remove any programs that fail to comply with the company’s new guidelines. Enforcement will begin on March 31, 2016, with developers being given until then to play ball.
The way that @Microsoft sneakily includes @Windows 10 with regular monthly updates is not much different from adware inclusion tactics.
— Marc Zimmermann (@marczimmermann) November 28, 2015
The target here is the nasty adware programs such as Superfish, which Lenovo actually pre-installed on some machines sold through 2014 and 2015. This program, and other adware like it, uses a man-in-the-middle technique to hijack a user’s Internet connection, change various settings, and display ads across the Web.
Microsoft explained the change of policy in a TechNet blog post:
“All of these techniques intercept communications between the Internet and the PC to inject advertisements and promotions into webpages from outside, without the control of the browser. Our intent is to keep the user in control of their browsing experience and these methods reduce that control.”
To this end, Microsoft is insisting, “programs that create advertisements in browsers must only use the browsers’ supported extensibility model for installation, execution, disabling, and removal.” Which means they will have to be browser plugins which are visible to the user and, most importantly, can be easily removed.
T-Mobile Throttles YouTube Videos
YouTube isn’t too happy with T-Mobile, accusing the mobile operator of throttling its videos as part of the Binge On program. Binge On lets T-Mobile customers stream all of the video they want from selected partners without it counting towards data caps, but limits the resolution to 480p.
The problem as far as YouTube is concerned is that its videos are also being delivered at crappy resolutions, while still counting towards data caps. Unlike Netflix, Hulu, and others, YouTube isn’t part of the Binge On program. Which means T-Mobile users viewing YouTube videos are stuck watching low-quality videos without getting any benefits to counter that compromise.
YouTube also thinks it’s unfair that Binge On was turned on by default for all eligible users. However, it is possible to switch it off, as long as you know how to do so. Regardless, Binge On has caught the attention of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is dedicated to ensuring net neutrality is maintained.
Google Tests Password-Free Logins
So, when you sign out of your Google account it still auto fills your passwords… Who thought that was a good idea!?
— Liam Maye (@i_is_liaaaam) November 14, 2015
Google is currently testing a method for killing passwords for good. The method being tested with a handful of Android users involves authorizing a mobile device, and then receiving a notification to log in when you input your account details on a computer.
It’s not a perfect system, which is why Google is currently testing it. However, it’s the first step down the road towards removing the need to memorize passwords for every website you use. Which is a good thing seeing as how many people use really dumb passwords.
Fallout 4 Can Ruin Your Life
A Russian man is suing Bethesda for ruining his life. The unnamed 28-year-old claims that he became addicted to playing Fallout 4, leading to him losing his job, splitting with his wife, and neglecting his friends. He also claims his health deteriorated due to not eating or sleeping properly.
According to RT (formerly Russia Today), the man is seeking 500,000 roubles (US$7,000) from Bethesda for the “emotional distress” the game has caused him. Meanwhile, millions of gamers are enjoying Fallout 4 to healthy levels; eating, sleeping, working, and spending time with their loved ones just as they did before buying the game.
Happy Holidays from Boston Dynamics
And finally, Boston Dynamics wants to wish you a happy holidays, and it has chosen to do so in its own unique way. Namely, by having three of its Spot robots pulling Santa’s sleigh. Spot is a big robot dog weighing in at around 160 lbs, and it’s terrifying at any time of the year.
For the uninitiated amongst you, Boston Dynamics is the robotics company acquired by Google in 2013. It produces robots that accurately mimic real-world animals such as dogs and horses. They’re just a lot more scary in lots of different ways. Still, Santa seems to be OK with it, so I guess we have to be OK with it too.
Your Views on Today’s Tech News
Is Microsoft right to start blocking adware like Superfish? Is T-Mobile right to throttle YouTube against its will? Do we need to move on from using passwords online? Has Fallout 4 ruined your life? What emotions do you feel when watching Boston Dynamics’ robots?
Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.
Tech News Digest is a daily column paring the technology news of the day down into bite-sized chunks that are easy to read and perfect for sharing.
We all love our calendars. They help us stay organized, plan for important upcoming events, and coordinate with friends and family on the best time to meet up for that next barbecue in the park. But did you know that Google’s Calendar now features a new, unique Reminder system that you can use to be sure that nothing slips through the cracks unnoticed?
Added to both the iOS and Android Google Calendar apps this month, the Reminders feature is an easy and quick way to be sure you don’t forget the bread at the grocery store and always remember to give your dad a call the next time Father’s Day rolls around. Check out our guide to learn how you can get the most out of this innovative and exciting addition to the Google lineup of apps.
Setting Up a Reminder
In this example we’ll be showing off the Reminders feature in iOS, however all the instructions also carry over to the Android platform on a nearly 1:1 basis.
To start, you’ll need to already have the Google Calendar app installed on your phone. Unfortunately for the time being the Reminders feature is only available in the mobile app, and if you want to set a Reminder from your desktop PC or Mac, it will have to be set on the app first, at which point you can view it on the desktop app, although it will only appear as a small red bar in between your other regular calendar entries.
To create a reminder, start by entering into the Google Calendar app. Once here, you’ll see a small red “+” icon in the bottom right-hand corner.
Tap this, and you’ll see a small set of text pop up, one asking if you want to create a new calendar app, and the other asking if you want to create a new Reminder.
Choose the “Reminder” option, and you’ll be taken to the following screen:
From here, you’ll see a number of suggestions for different reminders that you can either quickly tap to set up, or start typing in your own.
Like any other Google product, the company has attempted to make things easier with an auto-complete function, which will attempt to guess the reminder you’re trying to set up before it’s fully typed in (i.e – Set up a reservation “for dinner on Saturday”). From this page is also where you’ll be able to edit how often the reminder is repeated, whether it’s once every hour, day, week, or month.
Once you type in the Reminder you want to run, simply select a time, and you’re done! Now when the clock strikes, your phone will send a notification reminding you about whatever it was you had set up in the first place.
Managing Your Reminders
If you want to edit a Reminder that’s already been set up, you can do so by zooming out to your full calendar, and tapping on the Reminder you want to change. Once here, tap the small icon with a pencil in the top left corner, at which point you’ll be taken to the same screen you used to originally create the Reminder, and you can alter the details accordingly.
You can also turn Reminders on or off if you’d prefer them not to show up in your Calendar, in case the feature becomes too intrusive or annoying during your daily activities.
Humans are flawed, and we all forget sometimes. Even the greatest minds of each generation still needed to write things down every once in awhile or tie a string around their finger, but thanks to advancements like Reminders in Google Calendar, now every anniversary dinner and grocery list can be quickly and easily tied to a notification that will ping you the moment you need to know about it and not a minute later.
This year, Google was generous and gave us two Nexus devices to gawk over: the high-end Nexus 6P by Huawei and the more mid-range Nexus 5X by LG. We’ve decided to take a look at the fancier of the two — after all, the “P” in “6P” does stand for premium.
And it’s a really interesting device. Made by the relatively unknown (at least in the US) Chinese manufacturer Huawei, it veers strongly from the soft plastic design of the Nexus 5X, but you still get all the advantages of having a device running pure Android.
Is it really the best option in the Nexus lineup? Let’s find out – and at the end of this review, we’re giving away our Nexus 6P to one lucky reader!
Specs
Price: $500, $550, or $650 depending on storage options
Screen: 5.7″WQHD (2560px x 1440px) AMOLED (558 ppi)
Dimensions: 159.3mm x 77.8mm x 7.3mm (6.27in x 3.06in x 0.29in)
Weight: 178g (6.28oz)
Processor: 2.0Ghz octa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 810 with Adreno 430 GPU
This is a gorgeous phone — depending upon how you feel about that black bar along the top of the back. I think it’s a really nice aesthetic, and I love the huge landscape-oriented Nexus logo. The edges are chamfered in a nice (if iPhone-like) style, and the whole thing is made of a very solid metal.
To tell the truth, though, it’s a huge phone. It’s even bigger than my current OnePlus One, and despite my relatively large hands, I struggle to use this thing one-handed. It’s not just that it’s large, but the metal is also extremely slick. It’s a slippery phone, and I’m in constant fear that I’m going to drop it while using it.
So those pretty looks and large screen come at a price — gripability. I also pressed the volume buttons a few too many times on accident as I was trying to shuffle this monster around in my hand. The power and volume buttons are low enough to make them easily pressable, but they’re also right where you need to put pressure to be able to keep this thing from falling.
To some, “large metal phone” is going to be a bit off-putting, but for others, it’s the premium device they’ve always wanted. It really comes down to personal preference here. Personally, I’m not sure if I would want to use this phone longterm without a case.
Screen
The enormous 5.7″ screen on the 6P is an AMOLED display, which means it has good contrast and is able to selectively turn on pixels — this allows for the Ambient Display feature, which can show you the time and your notifications in black and white when you pick up the device or get a new notification. I didn’t find Ambient Display to be particularly useful — I prefer the built-in LED for letting me know about notifications — but for some, it’s a nice way to save battery by turning the screen on less.
In general, the screen isn’t the brightest I’ve ever seen. You could have some issues viewing it in direct sunlight, but other than that, it’s hard to beat that WQHD quality. You definitely won’t spot any pixels here.
Speakers
If I could only choose one feature to talk about in this review, it would be the speakers. They are fantastic. Dual front-facing speakers really need to become standard in the smartphone industry. At full volume, this phone easily fills a room with music.
And if you hold the phone at full volume, you can feel the speakers vibrating — that’s some power. I really enjoyed listening to music with the Nexus 6P; its speakers just weren’t comparable to any other smartphone I’ve used. They were even louder than the HTC One M9’s dual front-facing speakers.
Cameras
The 12MP shooter on the rear of the Nexus 6P has an impressive f/2.0 that results in some very good low-light photos. Even the 5MP camera on the front has a decent f/2.4 and takes solid selfies.
But what I really enjoyed was the built-in camera app — the Google Camera app. It has some wonderful secret features, but specifically for the Nexus 6P, Google has added some other cool tricks like SmartBurst (hold to take burst photos, easily create collages or GIFs), Auto-HDR+, slow motion video capture, and an improved user interface.
And honestly, it’s great. It takes photos super quickly, they come out nice and clear, and the interface is lovely.
Fingerprint Scanner
Alright, so here’s the big notable change we can all talk about and debate the merits of. For me, I found the fingerprint scanner to be a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, it’s super fast and convenient when you’re holding the phone. The sensor is located on the back of the device right where your index finger would naturally fall, and you can unlock the screen instantly by just lightly touching it. Seriously. It’s so fast. You don’t even have to wake the phone first!
But, the other side of that coin is that if your phone is resting on a table, there’s no good way to wake it up. You have to pick up the phone to use the fingerprint scanner, and there’s no double-tap to wake, so you have to feel around for the power button and then type in your backup PIN.
I want to love the fingerprint scanner. It’s brilliant when you’re holding the 6P, but leave it sitting on your table, and it’s going to become a good deal more annoying to wake up.
Software
Ah, now this is really why you’re buying a Nexus device, right? The 6P runs pure, stock Android, which means that you’re getting Android exactly as Google imagined it. On top of that, you get updates immediately and don’t have to wait for manufacturers and carriers to work through their bureaucracy.
Of course it’s running the newest version of Android, 6.0 Marshmallow, and it’s dead simple to use. Google has made a few nice additions to Marshmallow that generally make things more intuitive. One of the best examples of this is Google Now on Tap. Simply hold down the home button, and Google will show you relevant information about the things on your screen.
But in general, it’s the Android you know and (hopefully) love. You won’t find all the bloatware of a Samsung device here, and if you buy unlocked from Google or Amazon, you won’t have any carrier bloatware either. It feels like a clean, smooth experience in the software department.
Plus, rooting could not be easier since it’s a Nexus. If you’re a fan of rooting your device and customizing it with custom ROMs, this is the phone for you without a doubt.
Performance
Given the powerful Snapdragon 810 processor and 3GB of RAM that are in this beast, you shouldn’t expect to encounter apps that lag or stutter. I managed to multitask, watch videos, and play games without any trouble.
Many were worried about the Snapdragon 810 having overheating issues, and while it certainly got warm after prolonged periods of usage, I wouldn’t say that it was worse than other phones.
Battery Life
Powered by a 3450mAh battery, the Nexus 6P definitely isn’t lacking in juice. It does have to power a huge screen, though, so your screen on time might not end up being the best of any smartphone — but it’s definitely not bad. Its standby when not using the screen is great, probably thanks in part to Marshmallow’s new Doze feature that puts your apps to sleep while the screen is off.
But really, I made it through my days without a problem using the Nexus 6P. I’d say it has above average battery life, but the best part about the it is the fast-charging that is available thanks to the new USB Type-C.
Sure, your old microUSB cables aren’t going to work with the Nexus 6P, but that’s only because this phone is the future. The world is moving towards USB Type-C to replace microUSB and regular USB ports — and that’s fantastic because it’s a small universal port and it’s reversible. No more putting in your cable the wrong way.
Still, the 6P doesn’t support wireless charging. That’s a bummer, but the USB Type-C charging is much faster anyway.
Price
The model that I tested was the 64GB Frost, but it comes in three different colors, three different storage options, and three different price ranges.
The colors are Frost, Graphite, and Aluminum Silver.
The 32GB is $499, the 64GB is $549, and the 128GB is $649 at the Google Store. Though the 32GB is currently on sale on Amazon from Huawei for $599.
Google Nexus 6P by Huawei - 32GB Graphite, 4G LTE - USA Warranty
That’s still a bit cheaper than other high-end phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge or iPhone 6s, but nowhere near as cheap as some budget Android smartphones like the OnePlus X.
For what you’re getting, it’s not a bad deal. This is clearly a high-end smartphone, and it’s priced pretty fairly for that.
Should You Buy It?
The Nexus 6P is a mammoth of a phone, but we live in a world of phablets now. Its fingerprint scanner has its advantages, but what I really love about this phone is the speakers — and that enormous screen certainly isn’t a downside either. I just wish the phone was less slippery.
Google announced a change to Search Console today that will be of particular interest to webmasters with Android apps.
A new filter has been added to the Search Analytics report in Google Search Console, called Search Appearance. Within this view you can see which search queries caused Google to display the “install app” button for your website’s native app.
In addition, you can filter this information by country to see in what parts of the world your app is getting seen most in Google search.
It’s important to note that this filter is not capable of recording how many searchers actually went ahead and installed the app, it can only record how many times the “install app” button was seen.
According to Zineb Ait Bahajji on Twitter, this change will be rolled out worldwide to anyone using Search Console who also has a verified android app:
@jaaved Yes, it is rolled out globally, for all search console users who have an android app verified.
— Zineb Ait (@Missiz_Z) December 21, 2015
The information gained from this new filter can help web asters market their app more strategically based on how people are finding it in search.
Google’s Chromecast offers a way to play games on your TV, too. You won’t find the same ecosystem of games you will for the Apple TV or Amazon’s Fire TV, but you will find some fun party games people can gather around the TV and play, using their smartphones as controllers.
You could also cast your Android device’s screen to play a mobile game on your TV, or cast your computer desktop to play a PC game on the TV. But these methods allow you to play designed-for-Chromecast games.
Finding Games
You’ll first need to install some games that are designed for the Chromecast. Like typical apps that stream to your Chromecast, these are available as mobile apps for either Android or iPhone.
To find games on your smartphone or tablet, open up the new Chromecast app — install the Chromecast app for iPhone or Android if you don’t already have it installed — and tap the “Get Apps” header.
You’ll see a few popular games recommended. You can also scroll down to the bottom, select “Browse All Apps,” and then select the “Games” category.
You could also visit the Chromecast Apps website on the web and select “Games” to view available games for the Chromecast. Mouse over an app and you’ll see the platforms it’s available for — Android, iPhone, and Chrome on computers.
Playing Games
To play a game, just cast it like you would any other app. For example, we’d like to play the Google-created “Big Web Quiz” app as an example here. From the Chromecast website, we can mouse over it and see what platforms it’s available on. The “Chrome” icon is a bit misleading here, as that link takes us to a website that tells us to download the app on Android or iOS.
To play it, we’ll have to install the app on a smartphone, launch it, and tap the button to connect to a nearby Chromecast. This works just like you’d cast videos or music from any other app to your Chromecast.
The game will launch on your TV, and the device you’re casting it from — whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or the Chrome browser on your computer — will function as your game controller.
This particular game supports up to six players playing it on your TV. Multiple players can install the app on their phones and connect to the same Chromecast to participate.
The actual selection of games on offer is pretty slim at the moment, but there are some big-name games that could be fun. Aside from Google’s own trivia game, you’ll find a variety of party games like Scrabble, Monopoly, Wheel of Fortune, Yahtzee, and Just Dance.
Google Images, like its parent service Google, has been with us so long it’s hard to imagine a time when you couldn’t just hop over to it and search for everything from new wallpaper for your smartphone to images from current events around the world.
Once upon a time, however, Google was but a fledgling search engine without a robust image search feature. Back then when you searched for an image of something, you’d just get regular text links to web sites that had the image you described much like you’d get results based on search keywords. That all changed when millions of Internet users started slamming the service with a query that would best be answered with the image itself and not necessarily by directing the user, via text links, to the hosting website.
What caused such a flurry of searching that Google took note? The dress that singer Jennifer Lopez wore to the February 2000 Grammy Awards. The very revealing green Versace dress led to millions of inquiries as curious people searched for images of Lopez wearing it the day after the awards ceremony. Google engineers noticed the huge volume of searches related to the dress (which was, at that time, the most popular search query they’d had to date) and realized a dedicated image search tool would better serve their customers when it came to such queries. Thus, Google Images was born.
It’s common knowledge that Google knows a lot about you. Some see this as a fair exchange for their otherwise free services, but you might still be concerned about their data collection.
Everyone with a Google account should take a minute and pay a visit to Google’s Ads Settings page. By default, you’ll have interest-based ads enabled, which means Google will show you ads based on your Web history, YouTube videos watched, and other information.
By turning the switch to Off at the top of the screen, you can remove your personal info from the equation. You’ll still see ads, but they won’t be related to your interests.
After you’ve shut this off, there’s another page to visit: click the Control Signed Out Ads near the bottom of the page. The setting you just changed only affects you when signed into your Google account — Google still wants to show relevant ads if you’re signed out or on other websites, so it’s worth visiting the Anonymous Ads Page, too.
Here, there are two switches to turn off: the top for Google ads that show up on site beyond Google, and the bottom for ads inside Google Searches. If you’re concerned for privacy, it’s best to turn all of these off. You’ll still see ads, of course, but they’ll be related to your location or search terms instead of the profile Google keeps on you.
If you’re using Android, you can stop giving so much personal info to Google on your phone, too.
Did you turn all these settings off? Do you maybe prefer personalized ads? Have your say down in the comments.
Google Drive is brilliant. You get 15+ GB of free storage, a free online office suite, and it integrates with Gmail to boost your email experience. But that means your Drive has a whole bunch of files. How do you find the right one? With these Drive search tricks and tips.
For a long time, Drive offered only basic search tools, which is ironic considering this is a Google app. But recently, the search tools were upgraded and now it’s easier than ever to locate a file. Plus, remember, Google Drive can look into images and PDFs to “read” those and find content in them as well.
1. Search by File Type or Extension
You want to browse all the spreadsheets in Google Drive? Click or tap the search bar and you’ll see a list of different file types.
PDFs
Text documents
Spreadsheets
Presentations
Photos and images
Videos
Audio
Archive
Drawings
Folders
Note: If you’re using Google Drive on a desktop, you’ll need to click the little drop-down arrow in the search bar or More search tools, and then click Type to see the last four options.
This method shows you all file extensions in a certain category. For example, you can’t separate a PNG from a JPEG in photos, or an OGG from an MP4 in videos. However, Google Drive has a simple method to do that: an old command line classic.
Enter *. followed by the file extension, and search to find all files with that extension.
For example:*.png for all PNG files, or *.MP4 for all MP4 files.
2. Search by Date
Google Drive always lets you sort and manage files by date, but what about when you need to find files within a specific range. For example, when you’re doing your taxes, you might need to find certain files from a particular month or week.
In the More search tools on desktop and the default search options on mobile, you will find a few preset date ranges that you can use:
Today
Yesterday
Last 7 days
Last 30 days
Last 90 days
Note: This uses the time that a file was last modified. You cannot sort files by when they were created.
Desktop: To define a custom date range, click the last option Customized and use the two calendars to find files between the two dates.
Mobile: You’ll need to use a text command as there’s no Customized option here. Google Drive recognizes two self-explanatory commands for dates: before and after. The date itself needs to be put in the format yyyy-mm-dd. And you can use both commands together to find a range between them.
For files modified before a specific date:
Before:2015-10-18
For files modified after a specific date:
After:2015-04-22
For files modified during a specific date range:
After:2015-04-22 Before:2015-10-18
3. Search by Owner or Who It Was Shared With
Cloud-based office suites can share files easily, but managing shared files on Google Drive isn’t that easy. At least you can now search with those parameters.
In the More search tools on desktop, you have two ways to filter based on people.
Owner: Files owned (or created) by you, not owned by you, and those owned by a specific person. You’ll need to have that person’s email address though.
Shared with: Files that are shared with a certain person. Again, you’ll need to have that person’s email address.
Weirdly, in this method, Google Drive does not auto-complete email addresses based on your contact book. Google Contacts is a cool new Gmail feature, so this is surprising, to say the least. However, using specific search commands instead of the More search tools box, you can get those auto-suggestions, and search by owner on your mobile.
Files received from someone else: Use from: followed by an email address. For example, for all files sent to me by my imaginary colleague Donald Duck, I’ll use the command:
from:donald.duck@makeuseof.com
Files sent to someone else: Use to: followed by an email address. For example, for all files sent to Daisy, I’ll use the command:
to:daisy.duck@makeuseof.com
Files owned/created by someone else: Use owner: followed by an email address. For example, for all files owned by Donald, I’ll use the command:
owner:donald.duck@makeuseof.com
All these commands can be used in the same search string too. So if I want to find files sent to me by Justin and also shared with Tina, a search command would look like:
4. Search by Title, or Inside Files (Including Images and PDFs)
By default, when you type any word in Google Drive, it’s looking for that word in file names as well as their content. While it’s easy to do that with text files, not many people know that Google Drive has built-in optical character recognition (OCR) to read text in images. This property also lets you search text within PDFs.
Not only that, but Google’s smart algorithms can also identify the contents of an image! For example, when I search “dog”, it can identify photos of dogs in my Drive, even if the title, description, or tags don’t say “dog” anywhere.
It’s tremendously useful, but sometimes, it leads to cluttered results. When you just want file titles containing that word and not full files, use the advanced search tools on desktop to find the Item name box and type your keyword. It will find all files that contain this word as part of the file name and not the content.
On mobiles, you can use the title: command. For example, to search for files with the word “dog” in the file name and not in the file content itself, the command would be:
title:dog
5. All Google Drive Search Commands
Apart from the aforementioned operators, some of the best Google search commands and operators have made their way to Drive. You can use multiple operators or commands in a single search string to find the best possible result. Just separate them with a space.
Use quotes when you want to search for an exact phrase. For example:
Search term: “Exactly the words between these two quotes.”
Result: Files that have the exact term “exactly the words between these two quotes.”
Use the word or to find matches with one of multiple words used. For example:
Search term: Dogs or Cats or Dinosaurs
Result: All files with the word “dogs”, and those with the word “cats”, and those with the word “dinosaurs”.
Use the - sign for files without a certain word. For example:
Search term: Android -Samsung
Result: All files with the word “Android” but without the word “Samsung”.
Use app to find files that can be opened with Google Drive integrated apps. For example:
Search time: app:PicMonkey
Result: All files that can be opened with the web-based PicMonkey app.
You can find all the Google Drive search operators here, under the header “Advanced search in Drive.”
6. Searching Drive on Android
On Android, Google Drive can search by voice using Google Now. Fire up the Drive or your default Google Now search bar. Tap the microphone icon, then say Search Drive for and your keywords out loud. Drive will show you the results in a few seconds.
7. Searching Drive on iOS
If you have the Google Drive app installed on your iPhone or iPad, you can use the iOS universal search bar.
If you have a new iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, then the killer 3D Touch feature comes into play. You can 3D Touch the Drive icon on the home screen to access recent files or search.
Have You Switched to Google Drive?
I have almost completely switched to Google Drive now, both for its office suite as well as the excellent cloud storage.
Have you switched? What do you love about Google Drive or what holds you back? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
Continuing its commitment to secure search, Google announced today it will index a site’s HTTPS pages by default, even if an HTTP equivalent exists.
Google’s goal, it explains, is to eventually have everyone landing on a webpage with a private connection. In an effort to accomplish that goal, Google will now index only HTTPS pages when there is an HTTP equivalent. HTTPS pages are now the priority when both are available.
This is certainly a huge step forward from just earlier this year when Google was outright asking for help with identifying and indexing HTTPS URLs. Now Google is able to find a site’s HTTPS URLs without any assistance.
This is not to be confused with the rankings boost given to HTTPS pages back in August 2014. This will not place HTTPS pages appear higher in the rankings than they already would. It simply means that, when crawling a site, Googlebot will index the HTTPS version of a URL if both an HTTP and HTTPS versions are available.
I’ve heard some say they think this means HTTPS will receive some kind of ranking priority over other URLs. That is not the case. Google is simply trying to index fewer HTTP pages when there are HTTPS versions of the same page.
“Browsing the web should be a private experience between the user and the website, and must not be subject to eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, or data modification. This is why we’ve been strongly promoting HTTPS everywhere.”
The rankings boost given to pages with HTTPS URLs is said to be slight. You can think of it as a tie-breaker — with all else being equal, an HTTPS page will have an edge over a non-HTTPS page
A milestone for HTTPS was reached this past June, when the search giant announced the top ten sites with the most search impressions are now all HTTPS.
Of course, correlation does not always equal causation, but it is still a milestone worth noting since it illustrates how far HTTPS migration has come. It will be interesting to see how much the search impressions for HTTPS pages increase following today’s announcement.
Gmail and Google Drive are the most popular of Google services, but there are other lesser-known ones that can help you. Here are three of those that are worth checking out.
1. Google Person Finder: This smart Google service gives you a way to reach loved ones in the aftermath of a natural or humanitarian catastrophe.
With the Finder service, you can search for information about any person who’s safety you’re concerned about. Locals, first responders, or other volunteers can also add any information they have on the catastrophe victims to the website. Here’s our guide on how to use Google Person Finder.
2. Google Input Tools: With Google Input Tools you can type on the Web in any language of your choice. You can even add words to a custom dictionary for future use. The service works offline and has a Chrome extension, Android app, and a Windows program that you can install.
3. Get your Business Online (GYOB): GYOB puts your business on the digital map with a complete listing on Google search and Google Maps. It’s like a free Google profile for your business. You can see how the listing appears on Google when people search for it.
Google has quite a few lesser known services that are just as useful as their popular counterparts. We urge you to explore them all!
Share your favorite Google service with us in the comments.
Google is finally bringing some useful features from its Android app to iOS users. Among these new features are offline navigation, local gas price information, store busy times, and more.
While the addition of each of these features is noteworthy, the most significant of these updates is offline navigation. Now you can grab any section of a Google map and save it to your phone to access again whenever you’d like.
Download Maps for Offline Use
Saving a section of a map to your iOS device gives you all the functionality you’d expect from accessing Maps with an Internet connection. This includes the ability to search for locations within the area – from there you can get turn by turn directions to the location, retrieve store hour information, and everything else possible with a connection. Well, almost everything.
Omitted from downloaded maps is anything not related to traveling with your own vehicles. That means transit information, as well as walking and biking directions, are not available in offline maps
There’s no word on if those features will be available at some point, but as it stands offline maps take up a considerable amount of storage space, upwards of 100 MB per map. In an effort to preserve storage space on your device, downloaded maps will expire automatically after one month.
Downloading maps is easy. Here’s how to do it:
Search for the map location you want to download
Tap “Download” on the place sheet
Alternatively, go to to “Offline Areas” in the main menu and tapping the “+” button.
If you have downloaded maps on your device, Google will revert to the saved versions automatically when it detects you’re on a sub-par connection.
Store Busy Times
In addition to offline maps, Google Maps for iOS now has a feature you’re likely familiar with from searching with from searching on Safari or Chrome – store busy times. Find out when stores are at their busiest so you can decide when is the most ideal time for you to go.
This information renders in the form of a bar graph, as shown below:
This information is automatically populated based on actual day-to-day foot traffic to the location.
Compare Gas Prices
Another new feature added to Google Maps is the ability to compare local gas prices simply by typing into the search bar: “gas prices in [your city]”.
A list of gas prices and locations will then be shown:
When it comes to comparing both the iOS and Android versions of Google Maps both are basically now on par, with each app including and omitting the same sets of features. All of these new features are available today by updating Google Maps from the App Store.
Screenshots taken on 14/12/2015 by author. Featured Image Credit: Tsyhun / Shutterstock.com
You’re not the victim of a Google penalty, so why waste time worrying about your link profile — right?
Wrong!
That’s the kind of dangerous thinking that gets site owners into trouble in the first place. Most Google penalties are avoidable, provided the site owner does their due diligence to avoid the penalties. Don’t wait until Google tells you to fix your link profile.
By that time, your site will likely have been de-indexed and you’ll have to go through all the effort of putting in a reconsideration request.
Trust me, it’s easier to avoid a Google penalty than it is to get back into the search giant’s good graces. In this post you will learn how to avoid the next Penguin update with a comprehensive guide to cleaning up your link profile.
First, Actively Monitor Your Link Profile
You can’t remove bad links if you don’t know they exist in the first place. So, the first step in this process is to be actively monitoring your link profile.
Implementing a monitoring solution is necessary whether you believe you have bad links or not. If you have never intentionally been involved in spammy link building practices, that doesn’t mean you have a squeaky clean link profile. Harmful links can come up of nowhere.
Over time, your site may have attracted low quality links whether it was your intention or not. Unless you’re actively monitoring your link profile, you’d never know about these links.
Enter SEO SpyGlass.
With the help of software like SEO SpyGlass you can easily audit your link profile and identify which links need to be removed. Not sure where to start? Just keep reading.
Run an In-depth Link Audit
Using SEO SpyGlass you can look at every link pointing to your site. From there, you can use a set of criteria to figure out which ones need to be removed.
First, open SEO SpyGlass. Next, enter the URL of your website and let the software do its work. You’ll want to assess your entire link profile start with, rather than looking at individual links.
At a glance: Switch to Backlink Profile -> Backlinks and click the Statistics button to get complete lists of TLDs, backlink countries, anchors, keywords, etc. for your whole link profile.
More in-depth: For a complete look at your overall link profile, follow these next steps.
Navigate toward the section called Summary, which is in the tab called Backlink Profile. Pay attention to the following factors:
Ratio of total links to linking domains: A link profile looks unnatural if it has an inordinate amount of links originating from the same domains. Aim for an even ratio, or at most only a few links from the same domain.
Ratio of dofollow to nofollow links: A link profile should primarily consist of followed links. Naturally, some nofollow links will be acquired, but followed links should prevail.
Amount of links from home pages: It’s unusual and potentially unnatural to be linked to from someone else’s homepage. Having too many links from home pages could be a red flag, perhaps indicating you’ve paid for these link placements. Look at each one of them closely to see how natural they are.
Countries of origin: Do you know where in the world your links are coming from? With a link audit you can find out, and you should aim for links from the countries you’re specifically targeting with your website. It could be a red flag if your website serves an American audience, but the majority of inbound links pointing to your site from outside the USA.
Google PageRank: I know, Google is no longer updating PageRank, but it can still be a good indicator of the quality of domains. The higher the PR the better, of course. If you have many inbound links originating from domains with little-to-no PageRank, this could be an indication that their are too many low quality links in your backlink profile.
Please note that there’s an option in SEO PowerSuite to use Moz PA/DA stats instead of the obsolete Google PR.
You can’t replace Google PR distribution with Moz PA/DA right in the Summary tab we’re exploring now. However, you can Page Authority / Domain Authority Distribution for your links in the Reports tab. To access these stats, edit your Backlinks Summary report by adding the Page Authority / Domain Authority distribution widget:
As a result, you’ll get another way to evaluate the quality of the linking domains:
Anchor text and keywords: The words being used to link to your site can be just as harmful than the link itself. Anchor text should primarily consist of your domain name, or neutral phrases like “click here to learn more.” Anchor text full of keywords could be grounds for a penalty.
Deep links to internal pages: How many links are pointing directly to your home page, versus other pages on your site? People aren’t going to naturally link to your home page all the time, so if there is not a variety of links to internal pages this could be a red flag as well.
Identify Dangerous Inbound Links
After following the above steps you should now have an idea of the state of your overall link profile. Perhaps you could leave it at that if all signs point to a healthy link profile, but few of us are that lucky.
If you believe there is a cause for concern, here’s how you can identify the individual inbound links that are harming your website.
Using SEO SpyGlass to Identify Penalty Risks
SEO SpyGlass can analyze inbound links by comparing them against the same set of criteria that Google uses. Using this method you can easily pick out harmful inbound links then be on your way to having them removed. In the Link Penalty Risks module of SEO SpyGlass, direct your attention to the Penalty Risk tab where you can identify links that may be harmful.
A good indicator of a bad link is one with anything higher than a 30 per cent risk value. An inbound link within the range of 30 per cent to 70 per cent range should be considered potentially harmful, and worthy of further investigation. A Penalty Risk exceeding 70 per cent should be viewed as very high, and links meeting this criteria should be removed without question.
Manually Check Questionable Links
Following the steps in the above section you should now have an idea of which links are safe to keep, which should definitely be removed, and which require further investigation.
In the Backlink Profile -> Backlinks module of SEO SpyGlass, click on the tab called Backlink Details. Go through each column and compare any questionable links found against the criteria I went over in the first section. To recap, that includes things like topicrelevance, location, anchor text, quality of linking website, and so on.
Other things to look for: In addition to the criteria mentioned in the first section, here are some other things to look for when manually assessing inbound links.
Social signals: Social media signals can be one of the best indicators of how people actually engage with the content that’s linking to you. This can also be an indicator of the quality of the page. In the Backlink Details module, check Facebook Popularity, Google+1’s, LinkedIn shares, Pintrest bookmarks, and such to view how the pages linking to you are performing on social media. Please note that stats on Page Twitter mentions have stopped being available in SEO SpyGlass since Twitter discontinued the count feature:
Traffic Generated from Links: Navigate to the workspace called Traffic coming through backlinks. Here you will be able to view how much referral traffic your inbound links have brought to you in the past 30 days. This information can be found in the Visits to Your Site column.
You can keep this factor current yourself by syncing it with your Google Analytics data. To do this, go to Preferences -> Preferred Backlink Factors, select Visits to Your Site, and click OK.
Switch to the tab called Traffic coming through backlinks, select your inbound links and click on Update factors, then select Visits to Your Site one more time. Now you can provide your login info for GA. SEO SpyGlass will then sync with Google Analytics in order to collect the traffic data you need.
Make Note of Which Links to Keep, and Which to Remove
You can keep track of which links you want to keep, and which ones you want to remove, right within the software itself. In the Tags column of the Backlink Details module you can add any notes you’d like.
Use the tags feature to make a note of any further action required on the link. This could include actions such as contacting the webmaster, disavow right away, or keep.
Tag your links by right-clicking on them and choosing Add tags to selected record.
Commence Link Takedown
The Outreach Method
After identifying the harmful inbound contained in your link profile, you can now commence link takedown! The first line of defence is contacting the site owners and requesting to have the links taken down. You can either do this the hard way by going to each site and trying to dig up the contact details. Or, you can do this the easy way using SEO SpyGlass.
Easily Find Contact Information Using SEO SpyGlass:
Under Preferences, go to Preferred Backlink Factors and click Contact Info.
Click OK. Open the workspace editor by right-clicking any column.
Now you can add a new column called Contact Info to your workspace. Double-click Contact Info from the list of columns available, and click OK.
Select all the backlinks you need the contact information for, click on Update factors, and click Contact Info.
The newly added column will now fill itself in with site owners’ email addresses, provided the addresses are listed on the website.
The next step is to email these webmasters. Send out emails to webmasters by copying the contact information found by the SEO SpyGlass software.
It’s easy to do this individually if the amount of harmful links you found was low. You may want to use a template if you found a significant amount of harmful backlinks.
However you reach out to these webmasters, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Introduce yourself, mention what you do and who you’re representing (e.g. SEO strategist on behalf of X company).
Explain your intentions. Tell them how you either want to prevent a Google penalty, or you’re trying to recover from one, and it would help if a link on their site was removed.
Be specific about which page of the site the link was found on. Provide the URL.
Above all, be friendly. Coming off as confrontational or aggressive is a sure way to make the site owner less likely to cooperate with you.
The Disavow Method
What happens if the outreach method fails? Your next line of defence is to disavow! The disavow method is also recommended if there is an abundance of harmful links originating from the same domains.
If this is the case, don’t bother disavowing every single link. Disavow the entire domain. Adding links to your disavow list can be done right within the software. Choose the inbound links to disavow, right-click your selection, and select Disavow backlinks.
A menu will pop up asking whether you want to disavow just the individual backlink, or the whole domain (Linking Domain). After selecting all the links you wish to disavow, go to Preferences -> Disavow/Blacklist Backlinks.
When satisfied with the disavow list you have created, click on the Export button and choose which folder you wanted to save the list to. With the raw list of links obtained you can then upload it to Google’s disavow tool.
Be Careful! Keep in mind that every time you upload a new disavow file it overwrites the previous one. If you have disavowed links before, make sure those links are included in the new file you are about to upload.
What Happens Now?
You’ve gone through the painstaking process of identifying harmful backlinks, either having them removed or disavowed, but there’s one step left to do.
Keep monitoring!
Disavow files are processed reasonably quickly after being uploaded, but that doesn’t mean your days of worrying about spammy links are over.
You never know where your next link is going to come from, so you have to be proactive in keeping your link profile clean. Google never stops checking for spammy links, so neither should you.
For more information about the tools mentioned in this guide, please see SEO PowerSuite.
Featured Image: Vladru /Shutterstock.com
All Screenshots taken 06/12/2015 of www.link-assistant.com
By now, we all know that. Google’s world-dominating algorithm adjusts multiple times a day. Major algorithm updates make national headlines and spawn cottage industries and strategy shifts.
What’s the obvious response to the ever-changing nature of SEO?
The easy answer is this: Learn the new skills that are required to succeed.
But there’s another, deeper answer. SEO isn’t just about the technical skills. It’s also about the soft skills.
For both agency and in-house SEOs, soft skills are essential. I intend to explain the what, why, and how of soft skills in SEO.
What are Soft Skills?
First, let me define soft skills.
The simple definition is this: “Personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people.”
Soft skills are the personal qualities of the SEO, and they translate into how effective or ineffective the SEO is at managing and interacting in a professional environment.
Hard skills, on the other hand, have to do with SEO’s specific training, experience, and technical acumen. They may include things like creating meta-tags, mapping URLs, developing a content calendar, or improving site speed.
Soft skills are completely removed from the analytical data-driven repertoire of the SEO’s technical capabilities. Soft skills are focused on people, behavior, and interpersonal situations.
Soft skills are so much a part of a job that some employers view them as the yang to the hard skills’ yin.
From a neuroscientific standpoint, this very well may be true. The conventional bifurcation of right brain/left brain thinking does an adequate job of differentiating soft skills from hard skills.
Left brain thinking involves logic, analysis, facts—the SEO’s ability to parse data, configure robots.txt, and analyze ranking factors. Right brain thinking involves persuading the content team to implement longtail keywords, and explaining to the development team the importance of minifying CSS to improve site speed.
Most employers look for soft skills, whether they are explicit about it or not. As an example of this, I searched “SEO jobs,” and clicked on the first result that came up from Indeed.com.
The application is standard and straightforward. The agency needs an individual who is adept at paid search technology and strategy.
However, the job posting is replete with understated references to soft skills. I skimmed through the bullet points and identified the need for a candidate who is driven, strategic, a leader, a communicator, curious, a learner, and an educator.
A Federal Employment agency study of job openings in the IT industry found that job postings were filled with soft skills.
Obviously, soft skills are critical. But why?
More specifically, why are soft skills important for SEOs?
Why Are Soft Skills Important for SEOs?
Hard skills are the skills and abilities that enable the SEO to do the job, but soft skills enable them to get the job done. In other words, the SEO can’t effectively do their job unless they possess the right soft skills.
You’ve probably heard of the concept of the T-shaped marketer. The idea is that every successful marketer should possess a broad array of skills, but go deep in a particular area.
In any given SEO agency, you may find an individual who is really good at technical SEO. Perhaps this person also dabbles in social media marketing, video, blogging, and email marketing. Nevertheless, her primary skill is technical SEO and its attendant tasks, but she has an awareness of the other essential areas of marketing.
The T-shaped concept is really helpful, but it only focuses on technical skills. Behind this T-shaped marketer is an entire halo of important skills. They are less objective, more intuitive, and no less important.
These are the soft skills of the SEO. Although we can and should identify our T, and the T of those we hire, it’s also important to be aware of all the soft skills that go into allowing the person to thrive.
Here are some of the concrete reasons why SEOs should possess soft skills:
To coordinate: Many agency SEOs have the important task of getting various departments to work together. Unless you get your dev team talking to your creative team talking to your design team, while all talking to you, you’ll get nowhere fast.
To learn: This article opened up with the statement that SEO is constantly changing. The field, by its nature, demands SEOs keep pace with the change, and continually upgrade our knowledge and skills. We can’t rely on last year’s strategy to make an impact this year.
To adapt: Adaptability is key. Pivoting from a defunct strategy to an innovative new channel is part of the fun and confusion of being an SEO.
To educate: A lot of people still don’t “get” SEO. The SEO’s job is more than doing. It’s also explaining. Whether you need to explain responsive design to the CEO or the importance of site speed to the designer, you’ll constantly be in teaching mode.
To persuade clients to act: As Grant Cardone wrote, “We’re all selling, all the time, whether we know it or not.” Selling requires persuasion. Perhaps you need to persuade the client to purchase your services. Perhaps you need to persuade the client to implement your advice. Perhaps you just need to persuade your boss that content marketing is indeed important. Whatever the case, persuasion — a soft skill — is required to make SEO work.
In a nutshell, the SEO needs soft skills in order to succeed. It’s just that simple.
In one study by Right Management, nearly 1,000 professionals were asked about the factors that lead to “accelerated performance.”
You would think they would pick things like “experience,” “knowledge,” and “skills.” Those were indeed part of the overall picture of success, but not the predominant parts.
The biggest components of success — 78% — had to do with soft skills.
Even If you possess the world’s deepest and most advanced SEO knowledge, you’ll be ineffective in an agency or business if you don’t have honed soft skills.
So, let’s talk about those soft skills.
What Soft Skills Should an SEO Have?
1. Persuasiveness
An SEO who is a skilled persuader will be a powerful force in any organization.
SEO requires persuasion on many levels. You may need to persuade skeptical customers to purchase your services, or skeptical executives to implement your strategy.
2. Adaptability/Flexibility
I can’t emphasize this point enough. Adaptation to industry changes and flexibility to bend marketing strategies are a regular part of the SEO’s job.
Take a look at what SEO used to be versus what it is now.
How much time has passed since the “old SEO?” Just a few years. How much adaptability have SEOs had to embrace the mean time? A whole lot!
A 2014 survey of marketing soft skills identified “the ability to embrace change” and “adapt strategies quickly” as the top two skills.
The field of marketing is always changing. But the field of SEO is particularly affected by this constant change. SEOs, as players in the most change-vexed field of marketing, must be highly flexible.
3. Patience
SEO doesn’t produce instant change.
Sure, there may be some rapidly indexed pieces of content, and some quick wins due to some optimization, but overall, SEO demands a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race approach.
While it is true that SEO rapidly evolves, it is also true that consistent gains require a substantial amount of time.
Google’s algorithm has shown us that it is quick to punish sites (you could drop out of the ranks overnight), but slow to reward sites (gaining a few positions in the search results takes months).
What this means is that SEOs should possess the soft skill of patience.
4. Strategy
SEOs should learn to embrace all of marketing, not just their own niche of SEO.
SEO is a very narrow slice of the great big marketing world. SEOs need to integrate disparate strategies, approaches, and methods in order to make a meaningful impact.
UpCity’s Guide to Hiring a Professional SEO paints a picture of the SEO as someone who can integrate different types of marketing into a strategic whole.
How can we define an integrated approach? An integrated approach views SEO as part of the digital marketing milieu. SEO is a marketing methodology, and it must interact with other methods such as paid search, content marketing, branding, PR, and social media. ‘Strategy’ runs the risk of being a buzzword. Nonetheless, an overall strategic vision is critical. SEOs with a strategic mindset can better adapt to the integrated approach discussed above.
The greater amount of strategy the SEO possesses, the more successful they will be.
5. Curiosity
SEOs should be curious.
Why? Because there are constantly new strategies to learn, new techniques to investigate, and new data to learn from. A high degree of curiosity will enable the SEO to successfully understand more about their job and how to improve.
6. Team Player
Even though “team player” is last on my list, it’s one of the first soft skills that an SEO should possess.
What do I mean by “team player?” A team player is someone who can easily interact with, enjoy, and provide value to his or her team members.
Why is this so crucial in SEO?
Here’s why: SEO is no longer the realm and responsibility of one person in an organization (an in-house organization); nor is SEO a single department in a marketing agency.
SEO is everywhere. SEO has wormed its way into everything tech and marketing — mobile, content, paid search, UX, design, personalization, customer personas, conversion rate optimization, split testing, user testing, coding, everything.
SEO is also an imperative for any type of business — local, global, or anything in between. From legal agencies to manufacturing behemoths, SEO plays a role in the business’s success and survival.
Keith Goode, the Chief SEO Evangelist at seoClarity, calls this the “democratization of SEO.” As he explains, “SEO [is] embedded into the fabric of your organization.”
The SEO’s role becomes intensively team-focused, since the SEO must both train people, and then have those individuals champion the cause of SEO.
SEO needs to be backed by an alliance of knowledgeable individuals within the organization who understand SEO’s principles, and realize SEO’s value in the overall success of the company.
What does this require? It requires the SEO be a team player.
Conclusion
Each SEO has a unique blend of technical skills. In the same way, each SEO has a unique blend of soft skills.
If every SEO had the same soft skills to the same degree, the world of marketing would be boring and predictable.
As you assess your own soft skills and those of the SEOs around you, you’ll see a huge variety. Whatever kinds of unique approaches, abilities, and idiosyncrasies you identify, you’ll no doubt see the importance of soft skills.
What soft skills do you think are important for SEOs to possess?
Image Credits
Featured Image: Pressmaster/Shutterstock.com All screenshots by Neil Patel. Taken November 2015.
Google announced its plans to roll out accelerated mobile pages in February 2016, following successful testing of the new technology.
The search giant first unveiled its AMP technology two months ago, touting it as an open-source content delivery platform that can load web pages instantly after being clicked on from a Google search.
Initially, this technology was tested with a select few publishers. Now, by late February, everyone will be able to take advantage of the new technology.
You don’t have to wait until then to get your content ready. You shouldn’t wait, either. According to Google’s John Mueller, this is going to be “next year’s hottest new website technology.”
Mueller also added that if you’re a web developer, you’re most certainly going to be asked about it. Whether you’re an SEO, a developer, or just website owner — it’s best to become acquainted with this new technology now and start implementing it.
Creating an Accelerated Mobile Page
To get started, create your first AMP page following the instructions and code provided by Google on this web page.
In the page linked to above, Google walks you through the simple steps of creating an AMP page. This consists of adding a piece of boilerplate code, adding a marked up image, and then styling the page using CSS.
When all your code and markup is in place, you can validate it using a tool provided by Google in the walkthrough. If the code validates, you can then publish your first AMP page.
From what I can tell, these are steps that will have to be followed for all content you wish to turn into AMP pages going forward. If you want a head start, you can start creating AMP pages now.
Google is encouraging publishers to get started as soon as possible, adding: “Content you publish to your sites today will be eligible to show up in the demo now, and soon in Google search.”
According to Mueller, a lot more information about the AMP project will be coming in the new year
Featured Image Credit: Ilin Sergey / Shutterstock.com
As soon as Google announced that page load speed had been added to its ranking algorithms, page load speed became a buzzword in the SEO community. Unbelievably, that was over five years ago now.
Page speed continues to be a hot topic in the SEO and UX spaces, and rightfully so. Even after five years, there is still an abundance of inaccurate or incomplete advice available regarding page speed. In my opinion, one of the often-ignored page speed topics is web hosting. In this article, I’ll share some of the data and experience I’ve gained regarding how web hosting impacts page load speed.
The Real World Impact of Page Load Speed
While the realistic benefits of improving page load speed are sometimes overstated, there are very real benefits to speeding up your website’s pages.
SEO: Since page load speed is part of Google’s ranking algorithm, your website’s page load speed may have an impact on your Google rankings. The data on the specifics of this is confusing, though, and it seems likely that page load speed may be a very minor ranking factor.
For example, this study shows no correlation between page complete load times and Google rankings, but it did find a correlation for time to first byte. Another study also found no correlation between rankings and page load time. It seems likely that the impact of page load speed on rankings is very small, so as SEOs it’s important that we don’t present page load speed as a major factor in rankings.
UX: The impact of page load speed on users is likely much greater than its impact on Google rankings. Multiple studies have consistently documented the impact of page load speed on user experience – slow load times lead to user abandonment and decreased conversion rates. Scale does matter when discussing this benefit, though. An incremental improvement in conversion rate (which is huge for large e-retailers) may translate to a very small monetary benefit for websites with small traffic numbers.
Why Web Hosting is an Important Factor
When you browse to a website and load a webpage, you are essentially running programs on and opening files from a remote computer (the web server). The faster that remote computer is, the more quickly the webpage can be loaded. There are three basic tasks the web server has to complete:
Execute code: In many cases, the web server has to execute thousands of lines of code (for example, the PHP code that makes up WordPress) to render a single webpage. Just like opening a program on your computer takes time, it takes time to execute all this code on the web server.
Run database queries: For any CMS-based website, the website code will have to run database queries to retrieve the webpage content from a database (e.g. MySQL). A WordPress website may make 100+ database queries to render a single page.
Serve files: A typical webpage requires the web server to serve up dozens of files (images, CSS, Javascript, etc.). For example, loading the homepage of Amazon.com involves over 350 requests to the web server.
What Makes Some Web Hosting Packages Faster Than Others?
How do you pick out a web hosting package that will help improve your site’s page load speed? As it turns out, the factors that make a hosting package faster are very similar to the factors that make your own computer run faster:
Dedicated resources: The first step is to choose a hosting plan that offers dedicated resources – this keeps other websites from hogging resources (e.g. processor and memory) from your website. Instead of choosing a shared hosting plan, choose a VPS or a dedicated server.
More resources: Having more available processing power and memory means your server can execute requests more quickly. (Just upgrading from shared hosting to dedicated will usually give you significantly more available resources.)
Faster hard drive: A solid state drive (SSD) loads files much faster than a standard hard drive, resulting in faster performance.
Local resources: Having your database and other resources directly on the web server can help improve performance vs. these resources being on another server as with some shared hosting packages.
Below is an example shared hosting plan (from HostGator). Note, there are not dedicated resources (processor and memory).
Below is an example dedicated server (from KnownHost). Note that there are dedicated resources (processor and memory) but this plan doesn’t have an SSD. If you need more resources, just upgrade to a higher level.
How Much can Faster Web Hosting Improve Page Load Speeds?
Upgrading web hosting can have a significant impact on page load speed, especially for resource intensive (i.e. lots of code and database queries to execute) websites, such as Magento websites. My company recently completed a page load speed study that measured the impact of upgrading from a basic shared hosting plan to a VPS plan has on page load speed for a Magento website.
The results were dramatic – the VPS hosting offered a 62% improvement in page load speed:
Upgrading web hosting will have a smaller impact for websites that are less resource intensive or for websites that are already on relatively fast web hosting. I’ve found that upgrading web hosting has the greatest impact for Magento websites, but it delivers improvements for WordPress, Drupal, and other websites also. Upgrading web hosting can also deliver a significant speed boost if your website is loading slowly due to many users browsing the website simultaneously.
Time to First Byte
Remember the study I cited above that suggests “time to first byte” may be the page speed metric Google uses to influence rankings? Time to first byte isn’t influenced by front-end optimization tactics like minimizing Javascript or optimizing image files. This is another reason to upgrade your web hosting – a faster web server generally means a lower time to first byte.
Next time you’re optimizing a website to improve page load times, don’t stop with code optimization – consider whether you should upgrade the hosting to further improve performance!
Image Credits: Screenshot captured from HostGator.com Screenshot captured from KnownHost.com Graph by 10x digital, my employer, used with permission