OrderDynamics Monthly Google Updates Report - September 2012

August was a busy month for Google. With updates to Panda, PageRank, Analytics and AdWords, many businesses saw shifts in search engine rank and search results. Here’s what was changed, how it affected businesses, and what these changes mean moving forward.

Google Search & Panda 3.9.1
Google tweeted on August 23 about the Panda 3.9.1 update, stating “Panda data refresh this past Monday. ~1% of queries noticeably affected”.  Effectively, this meant the refresh was deployed on August 20, less than a month after the Panda 3.9 refresh on July 24. Google has not made any additional comments to elaborate on exactly what the refresh was meant to address.

On August 10, Google announced on their Inside Search Blog the implementation of a new ‘signal’ to indicate when copyrighted information is being violated. The signal has been nicknamed in the online community the ‘Emanuel Update’ after Ari Emanuel of William Morris Endeavour asserted earlier this year that Google has the ability to filter copyrighted content from search results, the same way it does with child pornography. Emanuel stated, “stealing is a bad thing, and child pornography is a bad thing”. The new signal sends copyright removal notices to Google when it suspects copyright infringement; the more notifications Google receives regarding any given website, the lower that site will rank in search results. However, this is the most Google can do to websites suspected of copyright violations; they cannot de-index sites that are repeatedly accused of copyright violations unless a copyright holder actually approaches and asks them to. Those de-indexed can submit counter-notices thereafter to petition to be re-indexed. This is the first Google update pertaining to copyright management in two years.

An unannounced change to Google Search Results has also been fueling conversation in the online community: 7-result SERPS. Search Engine Land saw the following results when Googling themselves:

The image also indicates that websites which Google deems most relevant to a search query has the ability to overshadow all other results by showcasing sub-results within the top-ranking website.

Google PageRank
Google PageRank underwent the third of its quarterly updates on August 2. PageRank is based on a weighted scale from 1-10 based on the number of backlinks a website has. These backlinks are counted by Google as recommendations to a reference point – the more recommendations a website has, the higher their PageRank. However, if backlinks only go to the homepage of a website, the value is null and the recommendation is void.  As such, PageRank relies heavily on links to as many webpages on a site as possible, as well as internal linking. Google did not make any official announcements on the update, however many businesses observed big changes in their PageRank consistent with Google’s 3-month update timing as seen in the past.

Blog interaction has been credited in the past to increasing PageRank. Commenting on, and sharing blog posts, submitting blogs to directories, SEO optimization and internal linking of blog posts,  and blog sitemap refreshes and resubmissions are among the easiest way to boost PageRank.

Google Analytics
Google announced on their Analytics Blog on August 11 that they would be changing how sessions are calculated in Google Analytics. Previously any of the following would end a session:

• After 30 minutes elapse between page views
• The end of the day
• The user closes their web browser

The change affects only the last stipulation. In order to better handle emerging multichannel functions within businesses, a session will now end when the traffic source code changes – meaning if a user first clicked link A to get to a website, left, and then came back via link B, then there would be two separate sessions. That said, if a user clicked link A, left, and then came back after a very short time via link A again, it would be counted as one session. This effectively changes how Bounce Rate is calculated within Google Analytics, as a quick departure from a webpage could be deemed a legitimate session if the user revisited the page soon enough.

Google introduced Google Analytics Report Automation on August 23 – an integration that allows for easy export of analytics data to Google Docs, Sites or Spreadsheets using Google Apps Script, but specifically refers to the custom API implemented in Spreadsheets that allows dashboards to be updated automatically. The Apps Script means that no coding is required on the part of the user to create the reports they want.

Google Analytics also saw the introduction of the segmentation tool, Shortcuts, on August 29.  The tool allows users to configure data preferences and filter settings into a shortcut on the Analytics Dashboard, which then acts as a one-click means of accessing refined data they frequently use. Shortcuts greatly simplifies and cuts the time needed to refine by the type of keywords used to search and access a website, traffic source codes, region and more.

Google AdWords
On the Inside AdWords blog on August 28, Google announced the refinement of geo-targeting options within AdWords for Canada, the US, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, India, Ireland, Romania, Sweden, Taiwan and Vietnam. The update allows for more specific local targeting with ZIP Code Targeting for the US, and Postal Code Targeting for Canada, as well as city-level targeting for the other countries. Location extensions can also be set up to target specific areas within a city. For example, if when targeting Toronto a user wants to specifically focus on the Scarborough area – location extension allows for that. In the US, AdWords campaigns and reports can also be tailored based on preferences yielded from TV audience data.

Google also wrote on the Inside AdWords blog on August 7 about an update to the AdWords Editor. The update was meant to support the transition from Google Merchant Centre to Google Shopping, enabling users to learn to manage Product Listing Ads the way they will be able to in Google Shopping, such as choosing ad placement based on bid amounts (since Google Shopping will require users to pay/bid for ad space).