Google News: Google Analytics Layout Changed

Google seems to be in very aggressive mood these days. It seems like google has either decided to complete a to do task list which the google engineers might created in beginning of the year & as we are near to end of the year they are just started completing that to do list or Google has decided to cover headlines of almost all famous SEO blogs daily :)

After hummingbird, penguin update & No PR update announcement, one more change thrown by google today. Google analytics layout has been changed. Though this is not for the first time, Google is famous for back to back changes. Again withing 15 days 4 changes/announcements by google making SEO industry keep on moving.

Today's Google news is traditional google analytics navigation layout have some changes. Overview section which was showing direct, referral & organic traffic has been changed by a panel, namely, "acquisitions" which has 2 new subitems, namely, "overview & Channels"

Overview channel will give you an overview of overall performance of organic search [via search engines], direct traffic, referral traffic & social traffic with details separated in 3 parts.
1. Acquisition
Giving overview of total visits, % of new visits and new visits.
2. Behaviour
Gives an overview of bounce rate, pages/visit and avg. visit duration.
3. Conversions
Gives an overview of goal conversion rate, goal completion & goal value. This is the only section which gives you choice of selecting 1 goal out of x no of goals you have set. So you can see the performance of each goal you have set by selecting any from the small drop down buttonn.

Each of these section will give you the value in % and not in actual digits and that in horizontal bar chart.

Channel section will give you details of almost everything you might be seeking for. Channel section also have all the sections Acquisition -> overview has. The only twist is this section will give you more detailed values in form of actual digits rather than % or bar chart. You can see all the values with details so you can track from which channel out of 4 namely, organic, social, referral & direct. Again conversions have the selection option to measure the performance of individual goals.

You can navigate in traffic sources by clicking on traffic channel for more details as you were doing before. Rest of the things are as it is.

When you open the analytics, at first glance you might feel like lost in your own home. It's like after having relaxing sleep when you open your eyes interior of your house has been changed which might make you uncomfortable for a while as we used to be habitual and familiar with the old stuff and it seems bit difficult to get used to with new things. But when you take a deep breath and navigate it seems more productive, helpful and satisfying the meaning of name "analytics" which make your analysis task bit easier & more productive by comparision.

Though Google used to implement changes for better user experience for sure weather it is for normal net surfers or webmasters but back to back changes are making SEO industry bit uneasy with the stuff :)

We will wait for new changes or announcement by Google which will again rule the headlines of many authorised SEO & digital marketing blogs. And that can be expected in nearer future as per the footprints of google :)

Till then keep on reading digital marketing blogs for more updates, tips, tricks and guides on digital marketing topics. Feel free to leave your mark by leaving your questions and feedbacks in comment.

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Posted in: analytics layout change,ashseo,ashvyasseo,Google analytic appereance update,Google analytics,google news,google update,major changes by google

Google News: No Google PR Update in 2013

Google's web spam head Matt Cutts came up with new headlines of many blogs and articles on twitter when he replied to Niels's question that he would be surprised if there is any page rank update in 2013.

In detail, Niels Bosch asked Matt Cutts on social media website twitter "Will there be any PR update before 2014? And Matt simply replied "He will be surprised if that happened". Check the below image of their tweet conversation

No PR update before 2014

As the SEO industry knows it's almost more than 7 months last PR updated by Google and as per Matt, It won't get updated in nearer future. So those who were eagerly waiting for PR update have to wait more. Friendly advice I would say just stop getting worried about Page Rank because even Google might not getting much bothered about Page rank itself. And as per the symptoms of not updating PR, it seems PR will be one of the very minor factor to be considered for search engines rankings. We can also expect PR just flew away with any of Google algo bird.

What is Page Rank?
Those who are not aware of the fact that what is page rank here is brief for you. Page rank is a google toolbar digit which is kind of measurement of website having which kind of backlinks. As many well reputed & high PR websites are linking back to you as max page rank your website earn. Maximum page rank is 10 and minimum is NA or 0. Twitter has 10 Page rank. Google is very unbiased in terms of page rank as Google's own page rank is 9. Page rank is all about backlinks and have nothing to do with quality of content you have.

Page rank is topic of criticism since many years by SEO experts as higher page rank has been used by spammers to spam the net by paid links or bulk link building to get high page rank. SEO experts used to not bother much about page rank and care more for other better factors like traffic, quality, branding, reputation, etc. And I think after defending so many criticism  against page rank Matt just replied in one of his recent videos that page rank will be updated less often. Google always used to advice to be more concerned about other factors to improve user experience and rankings rather than keeping eyes on PR. Somewhere in it's support Google's own web browser Gogole chrome don't have toolbar or built in PR check tool. As we all know new hummingbird algo changes old PR algo of ranking of Google. So Indutry experts are saying it can be predictable that page rank will be updated less often and then will be thrown away.

So PR is dead?
At the moment we can't say so strongly. We can just wait and watch and focus our energy at better place rather than focusing on page ranks.

Keep sending your feedbacks in comments.

Thanks

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Posted in: ashseo,ashvyasseo,google announcement,google news,page rank,Page rank facts,PR update

Google News: Hummingbird - New Algo Announcement

Google HummingBird Algo Update

Google - The most famous and widely used search engine hosted a special event at a garage of the Menlo Park (Calif.) where Google born. On occasion of 15th anniversary of Google foundation, Google's VP Amit Singhal given more information about a new algorithm launch of a google, namely, "Hummingbird". So after having animals like panda and update, now Google has launched a bird :D This algo launched before a month and rolled up completely but officially they announce it today.

The name "Hummingbird" is derived to express fast and precise result of the Google search. This algorithm is specifically designed to improve the search result for all devices. After 2010 "Caffeine" algo launch this is the complete algo change of google. The panda and penguin were just an algo update. Means both of them were minor/major changes to the already existing algorithm. While hummingbird is completely new algorithm which will sort and display the search result.

So what about Panda and penguin update? They are uneffective? 

If you are thinking that now panda and penguin are gone and not going to affect you negatively and you got a free sky to spam the net with low quality links and content then you are going to feel bad with my upcoming lines :) The Hummingbird algo change has woven all previous updates including panda and penguin which means Google will make sure all the search result will filter out with the thumb rules of high quality content and authority. So you still have to follow the penguin and panda rules to be in top or to not get thrown out of the search result.

Why hummingbird algo launched?

Google always want to make sure that the users get the best result out for what they are searching for. And for that google used to work day and night to assure quality result serving to it's users. Of course that is the reason Google is favorite of many and home page of many :) So to make result more quality and related to the search of user Google launched this algo.

What will it do ? How will it affect the search result?

Hummingbird algo will try to understand the conversation search and deliver the best result. Now you might wonder what is conversation search? The answer is when someone insert query like conversation, for example "library near my area" "best alternative of joomla technology for website development" . In previous algorithm Google was used to go for a like query means it will show result with all those links which has any or many words from the query. but now Google will try to understand the complete query and will deliever the result as per the query. For example if someone search for  "library near my area", in previous scenario Google might show all the result having keywords "library","near", "my", "are" or any combination of it. But now-onwards Google search algorithm will try to understand the query inserted and will even be more smarter and will also try to figure out your area [could be ahmedabad for me] and then display the relevant result means in previous scenario Google might show me libraries of US and UK and are of different places but now if i'm logged in it will sort result in a way that I see library list near or in ahmedabad. isn't it cool?

If this is really what google is going to introduce then this concept sounds like graph search of Facebook to me. of course not for all queries but for few. don't you think so?

On other note it's quite cool feature from end user's perspective. I mean people who are not master in surfing the net and who are normal end user, this search algo will going to be boon for them i guess. As it will make search easier for them by serving the relevant result and excluding irrelevant results which it was showing before by it's like query practice.

Does it mean Google wont use like query? means Does google exclude result of combination of words of queries? 

No. Google will use like query and will show result with combination of words as it was showing before. But the sorting of result will be in a different way. The most relevant result will be listed first. As simple as that.

Hummingbird algo will hurt your website?

Have you noticed any drop in traffic or results in past month? No? Then it won't affect you. Because this algo rolled out before a month and the it was a smooth process so no-one noticed the change before announcement. After announcement many SEO people might dug their analytics stats :D So if there are any drop or increase in past month in your traffic stat then that's because of hummingbird change. If not, you are on safe side.

Is SEO Dead with this algo launch?

LOL. why should SEO get dead with such algos change and update? SEO is just becoming smarter day by day. Each SEO people have to go with an agenda to get the quality services for their clients and that's the only intention of Google. So if Google and SEO both will work smartly to serve the quality result they can better be friends rather than thinking to kill each other :D SEO is not massive linkbuilding tactic anymore. But in very smart way use your logic and vision with thinking of 3rd person who might looking out for a service and what that person might look for? you just need to serve that as simple as that. Because if you do so, you will rank highr in Google as that's what google want to show the users high quality and relevant result. and it will also help in lead generation and decreasing bounce rate by getting massive unrelevant traffic.
In short, SEO is and will be alive but in a smarter way ;)

What can you do to rank higher after hummingbird algo launch?

• Create good quality content and build an authority of your website.
• Try SMO to get others way open for your traffic and lead generation
• Work for user/client and not for search engine's. This is most important. I will write more on this for designer, developers and seo :)

How do I know all these? or how can you know all these?

• Reading and common sense and experience  :)
• Reading the posts and news of authorised writer. Don't read from anywhere as they will make you confuse so read from people having name or authorised in SEO industry
• Don't trust everything you read and use your common sense to conclude the facts because each person might have different analysis or point of view
• Use your or others experience and get the best

Give your queries and feedback in comments. Bye for now. :)

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Posted in: ashseo,ashvyasseo,Google algo update,google news,hummingbird algo,hummingbird algo update,SEO Tips

Personal Branding and Blogging as Personal Branding Tool

Hey there,

Today I am going to talk about personal branding and Blogging as best tool to create strong personal branding. I will try to make it as simpler and short as possible. But bare the length if you find it long because i believe if you give information then give it completely or don't give it because half information is worst than no information. Now coming on the topic,

Recently I have visited few business events related to digital marketing and have also been part of international business event campaigns for vary industries. And what I get to learn from all those exhibitors, speakers and visitors of the event is Personal branding is the most important and mandatory part somehow. Why? how? let's talk on that in detail.

First of all what is the meaning of Personal Branding?
In Simplest words, Be Famous. In simple language with brief I would say, do something unique so people of your community or world start knowing you by your own name. In more simpler world, people start searching for you on search engines rather than on social media sites. And you can set milestone that Google show your knowledge graph in Google search result when people search for you as result of your efforts to build a brand.

For those who are not technical people, knowledge graph is information including your name, detail, pictures, etc Google shows in sidebar. For example when you search for Shakespeare, Google will show you the knowledge graph of him in sidebar, marked in red in below image.

Google Knowledge Graph Example

In more detail, When people start talking about you, start following you and start knowing you by your own name is known as building a personal brand.

Benefits of Building brand:
Finding your own Qualities and enhancement of self-awareness
It will allow you to find your own unique qualities and pitfalls by critics as well. You can take complaints or criticism as feedback and can work on it to improve yourself as a person or professional. As you start getting progress and build your brand you will learn what people like about you and what you should work on to be more better. As you start improving it will also get you tremendous self confidence

Personal or professional network expansion & socialization
As you will start taking interest in particular niche domain & building your brand in it, you will start finding people from your community who belongs to the same nature or profession. Your network of friends or business will start getting expanded. It will make you more socialized in niche work or interest domain.

Be more closer to targeted Audience
As your network starts growing you will get an opportunity to be tightly coupled with the people of your targeted domain or of the same/vary  nature to you which will lead you to learn more from experts and vary nature people of your community and enhance your skills and expertise. It will also allow you to enhance both your professional and personal skills and can also increase your productivity. As you will get constant feedback & opportunity to polish qualities and decrease loopholes or dissatisfaction.

Gain self confidence & your hidden capabilities
Personal branding will make you more closer to yourself  and allow you to know your qualities which you might not find otherwise. As you start exploring yourself you will get to know the uniqueness of yours and hidden capabilities. one by one your internal coating will get uncovered and you will experience the uniqueness and improve own satisfaction ratio.

Standout of the competition
If you are professional and involved in business anyhow weather you are an enterpruner or an employee, you will start leaving mark everywhere. You don't need to be in the rat race or don't need to worry about the sales. As once you start getting famous, your product will start getting sold without any hassle :) If you are one of like me who is not interested in being enterpruner and happy to be an employee, then you don't need to wander for good job and your bosses will do everything to keep you in their firm as you will bring them potential business :) You will feel the empowerment!!

Get support with no Effort
You will start getting support for any of your cause and people will make efforts to get you the necessary support for you. Support could be anything weather it's investors for new business product or donations for charity or something else. People will worry for you, you won't need to :)

Make you stand apart from the crowd
As I already state it will make you known and followed by the people. You will not get lost in crowd of people with having diversified skills and knowledge. In online world, digital branding is also known as creating unique resume where people wont ask you the question tell me something about yourself. In fact, they will start explaining about your self to others.

Easy to Measure Success
You can easily measure your success by watching increase in your followers. You can also work out to improve if you see downfall by working on weakness and boosting your strength by constant efforts. Easiest way is as I mentioned before set a milestone of getting Google Knowledge graph for yourself . :)

Feel Special
Being important to someone make you feel out of the world. As people start following you, as they start adore you. When they come to you and try to prove you that they are your fan. It make you feel awesome. And I am saying this from my own experience. When a girl came to me and said I am your fan and I was looking for you online since 2-3 years but couldn't find you. She was the reader of my previous blog and when I stop writing she missed contact of mine :) I felt awesome when from a crowd of 30-40 people she recognized a silently sitting girl and told her she is fan of her :) which lead me somewhere to write this blog and build my brand too

Coming back to the topic

Now How to do Personal Branding  or how to build personal brand?

There are many ways of building personal brand. Like

• Be a Television or Movie Actor
• Be a politician
• Be a public figure 
• Be an active Social Worker

Sounds crazy or impossible for you? There is one simpler way, Be a blogger or an Author. All the above mentioned ways might failed or may be difficult but being a blogger is very much easy way for anyone. As you know in digital world Blog is a platform which allows you to speak what you feel. You can represent your views, thoughts in simplest way ever and in language you feel most comfortable with and you can be a public figure and build your own brand. I can give you the example of few people who get famous because of their blogging and started a trend somehow who stands out of others were Matt Cutts - Google Web Spam Head, Danny Sullivian - editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. What? do you think they gained it because of their industry? Then what would you say about Malala Yousafzai? A normal Pakistani girl who started a revolution by her blogging.

How to use Blogging as Personal Branding Tool?
Are you confused or thinking that it needs profound technical knowledge of blogging and technology? Neah.. it's not like that, it's damn easy. Here are the simplest steps ever for being blogger:

• First of all select any blogging platform. Some free, easy to use & most popular platforms are wordpress, Blogger, tumblr, etc.
• Think the domain name you would like reserve where you will post your thoughts and knowledge
• Think the subject domain you would like to write on. Not to worry about subject much, it can be mixed like you can write post showing your technology knowledge and your weekend fun at same blog under different category :) Because blog is your own place [My previous blog has that title Ash - It's my place :D where i written whatever I want to & it worked quite well ;) ]
• Start writing in your own language.

Sounds easy? you don't need to worry about grammar or spelling or language as people do overlook small things as they like to read good information. You even don't need to be an experienced writer to becoming a blogger because people appreciate the simple day to day language because there are thousands of professional writers online, you don't need to be one of them running for views. Just be yourself, use your language and people will like it and that's I'm saying by my personal blogging experience. I have never done any marketing or SEO for my previous blog which i used to write anything i like to and it got 1000+ visits from US. I was also surprised when I get to know that figure. Here is the proof

I have stopped writing since long time on it about a year or two on that blog and the image above is the screenshot I took just now. The blog still gets visitors. I used to write that blog at midnight after tiring day so never did proof reading. sometimes me myself don't know what I might written. I just write it with thinking I am writing it for myself  and self satisfaction. So blogging is anyone's cup of tea. Even if you are shy or reserved. Writing a blog is something like talking with ourselves and when we publish it others can read what we think and feel about something or how much sound knowledge we have about some technology or aea. The only thing required is activeness in Blogging. Because if you stop writing blog after few posts you will be lost in the forest of bloggers as you will start loosing your visitors and followers and wont be able to create your brand which is our sole purpose for blogging, right? .

Even if you don't want to build your brand, I suggest you to be a blogger. As it will allow you to meet yourself, increase your self-confidence, allow you to know what is current trend in market, what people like about you and you can find similarly crazy people from the glob :)

So what are you waiting for? Start writing.. start blogging and start building your brand...

If you have any confusion or query, or if you want some help, or if you are looking out for information/knowledge on any specific SEO or digital marketing topic, just put your comment or message, I will surely try to help out in possible ways :)

Feedback are warmly welcome, weather positive or negative :)

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Posted in: ashseo,benefits of personal branding,blogger tips and tricks,Blogging as personal marketing tool,branding,digital marketing,Google knowledge graph,reputation building