Weekly SEO news: 20 September 2011

Welcome to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.

Lust, curiosity, prestige and forbidden fruits can help you to get more website visitors. When your website is listed on the first result page, you have to make sure that people click on your listing. You can improve the number of clicks on your listings by addressing people's emotions and desires.

Also in the news: Google +1 clicks do not influence the position of AdWords ads (yet), Bing introduces adaptive search, Matt Cutts explains why PageRank can drop and more.

Table of contents:

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your website. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.

Best regards,
Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

1. Lust, curiosity, prestige and forbidden fruits

Getting your web page on Google's first result page is often a lot of work (although it is easier with the Top 10 Optimizer in IBP). When your website is listed on the first result page, you have to make sure that people click on your listing.

You can improve the number of clicks on your listings by addressing people's emotions and desires in the title and the description of your web pages:

1. Promise a sensual experience

"Close your eyes and picture your perfect partner. You will find her on our online dating site." Such a headline is more appealing than a web page title such as "Dating site - Updated 20 September 2011".

Use adjectives in your web page descriptions. Write "oven-fresh buns and freshly toasted bread" instead of just "buns and bread".

2. Trigger the curiosity of the reader

"Did Bill Gates really say that you should use Macs?", "The simple trick that made me successful". Trigger the curiosity of your readers and your listing will get more clicks.

3. Show that you can be trusted

Assure your website visitors that promises will be kept and that it is safe to do business with your company. For example, use web page titles such as "Business consultant with 15 years experience - Member of the XY association" or "15,264 satisfied customers can't be wrong".

4. Offer forbidden fruits

"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas - Exciting trips and lots of fun." People like to do "forbidden" things. If it applies to your business, use web page titles and descriptions that offer that excitement.

5. Make it exclusive

People love to feel superior. Use words such as "special", "superior", "elite", "exclusive" in your web page titles and descriptions and make it clear that your customers are special.

Example: "Platinum Gym - For real men only", "Perpetual Oyster - the watch for those who know"

6. Make it urgent

"Designer handbags - 20% off - only on 20 September 2011." Woman who are interested in handbags will click on the listing to make sure that they don't miss a great opportunity.

Use expiration dates and quantity limits to create urgency.

Improve the titles and descriptions of your web pages to make sure that your web pages get as many clicks as possible once they are listed on the first search result page. To make sure that your pages get listed for the right keywords, analyze your web pages with IBP's Top 10 Optimizer.

 
2. Search engine news and articles of the week

GoogleDoes the +1 button influence the Google Quality Score?

"The +1 integration with Google’s paid and organic SERPs doesn’t directly affect quality score. While it may at some time in the future, for now +1 is only an indirect influencer on your quality score. With that in mind, take advantage of this opportunity. Add the +1 button to your websites and landing pages and enjoy the lift in CTR."

Editor's note: How to add Google's +1 button to your web pages.



Google's Matt Cutts: why your website PageRank drops

In an online video, Google's Matt Cutts explained why the PageRank of a website can drop. There are three main reasons:

  1. A web page with a high PageRank does not link to you anymore.
  2. You use different URL versions of the same page. That can cause confusion.
  3. Google lowers the PageRank of websites that sell links to make them less attractive to link buyers.



BingBing introduces adaptive search

"Every time you search on Bing, the information provided helps Bing understand what you’re trying to do. The more you search, the more Bing can learn – and use that information to adapt the experience so you can spend less time searching and accomplish what you set out to do. [...]

We hope you like these new improvements. Adaptive Search will be rolling out in the US over the next few days."



Patent: how a search engine might use statistics to identify new ranking features

"The use of that feature as a rule in part of a rule set consisting of a number of features might be used to label emails or advertisements or possibly even web pages to a predicted label.

Is this how Google’s Panda works? It’s hard to tell for certain, though it does seem like the approach behind Panda is to identify positive and negative features (signals) that might predict how positive a user experience might be upon a particular page or site."



Search engine newslets

  • Yahoo rolls out redesign for search results pages.
  • A backlink analysis that is better than Google Webmaster Tools.
  • Google sees India web explosion.
  • British minister wants search engines to fight piracy.
  • Reconsideration requests get more transparent.
  • EU probing if Google dominates Internet search.
  • Google Wallet goes live.

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3. Success stories

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