Wednesday, 1 April 2020

Google Initiative To Help Health Organizations Become More Visible In Search

Google has launched a new initiative to help official health organizations, such as national health ministries and US state level agencies, to become more visible in search. Google is doing this by sharing a new document on important best practices for health organization and also adding an invite only technical support group.

The best practices document is open for all to see. It covers these five areas, but specific to health organizations:

  • How to help users access your content on the go
  • The importance of good page content and titles
  • Ways to check how your site appears for coronavirus-related queries
  • How to analyze the top coronavirus related user queries
  • How to add structured data for FAQ content

Google also made a technical support group that is invite only. Google said you will need to register using either an email under those domains (e.g. name@health.gov) or have access to the website Search Console account. National health ministries and US state level agencies that publish COVID-19 information can take part in our new technical support group. This group helps answer Google Search questions that they may have for their websites. Complete this form to request access to this technical support group.

It is rare for Google to have special technical support groups for SEO. Google did it with JavaScript related items a while ago. But this is a special time and Google wants to help with this in a big way.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

This marketing news is not the copyright of Scott.Services – please click here to see the original source of this article. Author: barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

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Google Ads New Policy Disallows Profiting Off Sensitive Events, Like COVID-19

Google posted a new Google Ads policy yesterday that does not allow ads for with “content that potentially capitalizes on or lacks reasonable sensitivity towards a natural disaster, conflict, death, public health emergency, or other tragic event.”

In short, you cannot profit off of events like the COVID-19 outbreak. Google added “Examples (non-exhaustive): Appearing to profit from a tragic event with no discernible benefit to users; price gouging or artificially inflating prices that prohibits/limits access to vital supplies; sale of products or services (such as personal protective equipment) which may be insufficient for the demand during a sensitive event; using keywords related to a sensitive event to attempt to gain additional traffic.”

Ginny Marvin from Search Engine Land said on Twitter that this “basically makes official that coronavirus-related keywords are off limits.”

How Google will enforce this, is to be seen, but it is effective immediately.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

This marketing news is not the copyright of Scott.Services – please click here to see the original source of this article. Author: barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

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Google Doodle For Dame Jean Macnamara – Polio Vaccine

Dame Jean Macnamara Google Doodle

Instead of the April Fools jokes today, we have a serious Google Doodle for the 121st birthday of Dame Jean Macnamara, an Australian medical doctor and scientist, best known for her contributions to children’s health and welfare – specifically her work contributed to the development of a successful polio vaccine in 1955.

Jean Macnamara was born on April 1, 1899 in Beechworth, Australia and passed at the age of 69 on October 13, 1968 in Melbourne, Australia. During her time at the Children’s Hospital there was a polio outbreak, she and Burnet demonstrated that there was more than one strain of the virus, a fact that would be important in the later development of the Salk vaccine. Between 1925 and 1931 she was consultant and medical officer responsible to the Poliomyelitis Committee of Victoria, and between 1930 and 1931 was honorary adviser on polio to official authorities in New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania.

She was honored as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1935.

You can read more from Google over here.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

This marketing news is not the copyright of Scott.Services – please click here to see the original source of this article. Author: barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

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Pigs At The GooglePlex

We have seen a pig at Google before but I have never seen multiple pigs at Google. This photo was supposedly taken at the GooglePlex, the main Google building in Mountain View, California.

It was posted on Instagram and a Pixel photo promo.

Have you seen pigs at Google before? I mean, real pigs.

This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.

This marketing news is not the copyright of Scott.Services – please click here to see the original source of this article. Author: barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

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Steven Levy: Google Search Results Overrates Freshness As A Ranking Signal

Steven Levy at Google with Matt Cutts

Steven Levy, the tech reporter that most tech reporters look up to. He has interviewed legends of tech, has access to companies like Google and Apple more than others. He is a legend and when he called out Google’s search algorithm for failing him and searchers yesterday, Google’s Danny Sullivan noticed and went on the defensive.

Here is Steven’s tweet:

In short, Steven said Google’s algorithm weighs freshness way to much in their ranking algorithm.

Danny Sullivan, now at Google, responds, saying you should check out our before: and after: search commands – they are new and shiny. But yea, we are interested in examples, can you share example queries of where we failed you in your search.

Let’s see if this results in any changes in the Google search algorithm?

Oh, and if you are interested in that photo. It was Matt Cutts interviewing Steven Levy at Google about his book, In The Plex:

Forum discussion at Twitter.

This marketing news is not the copyright of Scott.Services – please click here to see the original source of this article. Author: barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

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Tuesday, 31 March 2020

7 best social media monitoring tools for any business

People have always talked about brands and products. They’ve praised and complained about companies in the dining rooms, by the water cooler, over the phone. With the rise of social media, this previously intangible word-of-mouth has finally become measurable — and thus amplifiable — for businesses. Social media listening, the process of using a tool to monitor online mentions of a brand (or anything else), gives companies access to that data.

For this post, we’ve put together a list of 7 most robust social media monitoring tools to bring you real-time insights on your customers, market, and competition.

1. Awario

Awario is a relative newcomer to the social media monitoring and analytics scene. Its ambition is to make social media insights affordable for any brand, be it a startup, an international company, or a digital agency. With pricing plans starting at $29/mo, Awario offers Enterprise capabilities (from Boolean search to Sentiment Analysis to Share of Voice) included in every plan.

You can use Awario to monitor mentions of your brand, competitors, industry, or set up queries for the less obvious use cases. For instance, the app lets you identify guest blogging opportunities, discover content ideas, and find industry influencers to partner with. That’s where the tool’s flexible Boolean search mode comes in handy: it lets you create complex queries that will satisfy even the nerdiest of marketers.

On top of social media, Awario covers news, blogs, and the entire web to give you a holistic picture of your brand’s online presence.

Supported platforms

Twitter,  Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, news, blogs, the web.

Customer rating

 

 4.5/5 (Capterra).

Reviewers mention Awario’s affordability, Boolean search, influencer marketing capabilities, and excellent customer support as the main pros.

Pricing

There’s a free trial that lets you test Awario out before settling on one of its paid plans.

2. Brandwatch

Brandwatch is a suite of 3 tools for marketing and PR teams. Its Audiences product lets you find groups of people based on your targeting rules, such as demographic criteria and interests. It lets you better understand your customers by analyzing their social media posts and pinpointing what sets them apart from the general public.

Vizia is a visualization tool that lets you build custom dashboards based on Brandwatch data. Vizia also works with third-party tools, such as BuzzSumo and Google Analytics, to give you a comprehensive way to measure your marketing efforts.

The company’s social media monitoring tool is called Analytics. It comes equipped with image recognition, API access, and analytical dashboards that can be downloaded as PowerPoint presentations in a click.

Supported platforms

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Sina Weibo, VK, QQ, blogs, news, the web.

Customer rating

   4/5 (Capterra).

The tool’s users love its media coverage and customizable dashboards. The biggest con is its cost.

Pricing

Brandwatch offers 3 plans to choose from. There’s no free trial, but you can contact the team for a demo of the product.

3. Hootsuite

If you aren’t looking for an in-depth social media monitoring tool, but would rather opt for something that offers publishing, collaboration, and monitoring features, Hootsuite is an excellent choice.

While the app itself doesn’t monitor sources beyond social media, it offers many useful integrations with tools like Brandwatch and Reputology for your reputation management needs. Some of those are free, while some need to be purchased as add-ons.

Supported platforms

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. More sources available via integrations.

Customer rating

 

 4.5/5 (Capterra).

Users love Hootsuite’s user-friendly layout and the fact that it supports all major social networks for scheduling.

Pricing

Hootsuite has a free trial that lets you play around with the tool before you jump on one of its three paid plans.

4. Meltwater

Meltwater is an Enterprise media intelligence tool. While not a dedicated social listening solution (Meltwater also offers PR and social media management capabilities), it includes robust tools for monitoring mentions of your keywords across the Internet.

Meltwater’s strength is the analytics the software provides: it lets you create custom dashboards with metrics that matter to you, from audience demographics to the reach of the social media chatter around your brand.

Supported platforms

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, blogs, news, the web, broadcast.

Customer rating

 3.5/5 (Capterra).

The biggest pros mentioned by users are Meltwater’s coverage and powerful reports, with the main downside being its cost.

Pricing

Meltwater’s social media monitoring package is priced at $15,000/year. For more information, you’ll need to talk to the company’s sales team.

5. Talkwalker

Talkwalker is a perfect social media listening tool for big brands and agencies. Apart from providing you with the latest mentions of your brand and competitors, Talkwalker offers powerful analytics that let you spot trends in the buzz around your keywords. It goes beyond basic reporting by analyzing your audience’s demographics, occupation, and interests. It also builds powerful word clouds that let you identify hashtags that are most commonly used together with your keyword.

On top of tracking conversations across social media channels and the web, Talkwalker monitors print and TV mentions. Image recognition is also available in the Enterprise plan.

Supported platforms

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Flickr, blogs, news, the web, print, TV.

Customer rating

 4.5/5 (Capterra).

Customers mention Talkwalker’s ease of use, extensive coverage, and real-time alerts as the main pros.

Pricing

Talkwalker offers three subscription plans on their website.

6. Tweetdeck

TweetDeck, owned by Twitter, is an all-in-one dashboard for your Twitter activity. It lets you schedule tweets, interact with your feed, manage your inbox, and track mentions of your company (or anything else) on the network.

While the tool’s social listening capabilities are limited to one social network, its search options are pretty impressive for a free app. You can add keywords in flexible formats, exclude certain terms, and filter results by country, language, or date. You can set up as many searches as you need and reply to tweets right from the dashboard by connecting your Twitter account to the app.

Supported platforms

Twitter.

Customer rating

 4.5/5 (Capterra).

Customers love TweetDeck’s column layout, multi-account support, and scheduling options.

Pricing

Tweetdeck is absolutely free.

7. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is another two-in-one social media tool: while the app primarily focuses on social media management, it also offers listening capabilities for selected social networks. Though Agorapulse doesn’t include web monitoring, it’s a great option if you’re looking for a scheduling app that will also notify you of social brand mentions.

On top of publishing and social media monitoring, Agorapulse lets you find influencers and streamline outreach and communication with the help of its inbuilt CRM.

Supported platforms

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube.

Customer rating

  4.5/5 (Capterra).

Users love the fact that Agorapulse combines social media management with social listening, the tool’s ease of use, and its excellent customer service.

Pricing

Agorapulse offers a free trial. After you try the tool, you can pick one of the four available subscription plans.

Conclusion

Social media has become the place where consumers talk about everything — and that includes your brand. As more companies turn to social media monitoring for insights, social media monitoring tools are catching up and becoming more elaborate and affordable. However, don’t forget that the insights the tools provide aren’t everything — it’s the decisions you make and the actions you take based on those insights that will make your brand stand out.

About The Author

Every day, the web is talking about your business. Most brands have limited insights into these conversations: only through their own social media feeds. To truly understand their customers, companies need access not only to their social media mentions, but to those from the rest of the web as well. Awario crawls over 13 billion web pages daily to bring instant mentions from everywhere online. Companies can now find all the important conversations, related to them, and join in. For more information and a free 14-day trial visit awario.com.

This marketing news is not the copyright of Scott.Services – please click here to see the original source of this article. Author: Sponsored Content: Awario

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Google Rolled Out The New GoogleBot Over Several Months

Google rolling

Just an FYI, Google did not simply flip the switch last week and turn on the new GoogleBot, the evergreen GoogleBot, over night. Google said it was already indexing 10% of the web back in November. It scaled from less than 1%, to 1%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 75%, to 100% over several months and just reached 100% last week.

We didn’t notice because Google didn’t change the useragent of this evergreen GoogleBot, although we did see some evidence of it back in April.

I asked Martin Splitt and John Mueller about this last Friday in a webmaster hangout. I was curious if this was the reason for the chatter around a possible Google update last week. It could have been related to indexing and not an algorithm update but based on Martin’s answer, it seems it was not related to the new GoogleBot.

Here is the video embed, it first starts with me asking John Mueller about it, before Martin Splitt joined the hangout at 6:47:

Barry Schwartz: Can we talk about Googlebot a little bit? So it went live technically two days ago, the new Googlebot, the new evergreen Googlebot?

John Mueller: Well we’ve been testing it for awhile. Hard to say when it went live because there’s always this kind of transition period.

Barry Schwartz: So where did it go a hundred percent live or it’s still transitioning? I don’t know right, I need to have the other Martin here. But my understanding is it’s it’s a hundred percent live.

Then at 20:45 Martin Splitt joined and John asked him the question for me:

John Mueller: Did we switch to the new version of Chrome completely for crawling and indexing?

Martin Splitt: Yes, yes. So the thing, the thing that we do is as you, know we keep experimenting on new stuff with Googlebot on very very small sets of URLs basically very small sample. Sometimes just like basically a couple of URLs really. But we continuously improve or increase the amount of the sites that we would be crawling with Googlebot over the last couple of months, very carefully monitoring what was happening. The things, the issue that we confirmed that happened a couple months that has nothing to do with rendering. But yeah so we have been increasing continuously increasing the sample size of the URLs that we were crawling with the new Googlebot and half ramped it up to 100% already. I don’t know the exact day when we did to be honest. I don’t have it on top of my head because it just went smoothly.

Barry Schwartz: Was it from like 10% to like a hundred percent?

Martin Splitt: No, no no. It was less than 1%, 1%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 75%, 100%, I think were the steps that I have observed.

Barry Schwartz: You could send me an email with the exact percentages and dates… I am joking.

Martin Splitt: But basically it was a pretty rolling thing. I just sampled it at random points of time and checked in with rendering team. Zoe is in the rendering team, the person that was yesterday on stage for that JavaScript session. And I would I was as excited about it as everyone else. I was like oh joy. But I don’t think I know the dates.

Barry Schwartz: But the whole process started a few months ago or a year ago? Or terms of the 1% testing.

Martin Splitt: I don’t know. So I remember so I remember I talked to Zoey in December last year and I think that was, oh November. November we were at 10 percent.

So it seems it was pretty close to 80-80% for some time and that algorithm update was likely unrelated to this GoogleBot release.

Forum discussion at YouTube.

This marketing news is not the copyright of Scott.Services – please click here to see the original source of this article. Author: barry@rustybrick.com (Barry Schwartz)

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