This post contains photos of sexy aliens
1) Find out what's popular in the last 24-72 hours
2) Choose a maximum of 3 terms
3) Put them on your video title no matter what kind of content you have
Done! Just sit back and watch that counter go up! 
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In it's quest to serve you the most accurate (ads and) information that you are looking for, Google will now match searches for illness symptoms with the actual disease you might suffer from. A search "abdominal pain on my right side" will provide a top-of-search-results box with possible situations such as appendicitis, ovarian cyst and hernia. Of course #Google is quick to note that this is not medical advice…
Full details at the official Google Search blog http://bit.ly/xGk5TT
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One process often suggested to improve your search engine rankings are creating your #sitemap in XML format and submitting to search engines. #Google and #Bing are among the search engines that support the format. But a simple dump of every single page on your site might not be the best way to go about it.
You can use the XML Sitemap to guide the search engine bots to the page you really want to have traffic. +Ben Goodsell at +Search Engine Watch is analyzing the concepts and tricks behind this, check the full article here http://bit.ly/zTddWV
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Apparently Mitt #Romney now has a "Santorum problem". www.spreadingromney.com has managed to come up in the top search results on Google and Bing for "Romney" (#5 on Google on my tests both with "google plus your world" and normal settings)
+Search Engine Land has more on the subject http://selnd.com/ytX7Oc
(Yes, I suppose this post's title just helped spreadingromney.com's cause a little bit 
)
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+George Aspland at +Search Engine Land has posted a comprehensive guide on improving your search engine ranking through careful curation of your content and code. His 12 steps:
1. Choose The Keywords To Focus On
2. Prioritize Your Keywords
3. Check That Important Content On The Page Is Getting Indexed
4. Ensure The Indexed Text Is Unique
5. Try To Improve The Search Listings For The Keywords
6. Update Or Add A Headline
7. Optimize Existing Text
8. Look For Text In Images
9. Possibly Add New Content On The Page
10. Develop Alt Tags for the Image Links
11. Update The HTML Page Title & Meta Description Tag
12. Increase Internal / External Links & Social Engagement
Full article here http://selnd.com/zXRr4k
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In case you didn't think you needed to be on Google+ since your social media presence on other platforms was "good enough", think again. As of this week Google is rolling out the "Search Plus Your World" feature, basically combining it's data from Google+ in the search results, both providing a more personalized result but also acting as a gateway to Google+.
As you can see on the screenshot below, the search results are now split vertically in two parts: the regular search results (but personalized with information on whether you or your friends shared a link) on the left and on the right related results from Google+. If you search for "music" you get Britney Spears's G+ profile.
Search Engine Land has more examples of these changes
http://selnd.com/wKFaBM
Now, Google says http://bit.ly/x5oIXJ they are not really favoring Google+ and they would want to add Facebook and Twitter on the right-part-of-the-screen results, if they just could make a deal with them. Of course until then, the situation is simple: If you're on Google+ and your competition isn't, you have a possible advantage (you also need to appear on Google's suggestions for your desired keywords). The fact is that Britney Spears didn't appear on the first page of search results for "music" yesterday, now she does.
So how do you get on the action? Google has a guide page http://bit.ly/y0GhHP but it's not really clear. Basically they are saying "get on Google+ and start posting useful content". Good luck then! 
Google now has it's own internet
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#Google is quickly adding social elements in search, you might have seen that can see who shared a page directly on the #search results page. But you can now add your own author information (name and photo) when a page of yours shows up in search results.
Here's how to do it:
1. Link your content to your Google Profile: basically just add a link to your Google profile similar to this <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/109098983561044225374/?rel=author">Markos Giannopoulos</a> on all of your pages (for example in the footer or your sidebar bio)
2. Link to your content from your profile: This is done by editing your Google profile and adding your page under the "Contributor" section on the right column.
Google will do the rest. The full information is here http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986 Google also provides the option to verify your information by your e-mail address, but this requires that your address is made public on all of your pages (not a good idea due to spambots).
You can verify that everything is working with the Rich Snippets Testing Tool https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
The end result is similar to what you see in the attached image. Your name and photo will appear next to your pages in the search results, along with your circle count and "Add to circles" button.
(Post based on information thanks to an article by +WPMU.org, found via +Brian McDaniel)
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Here is a handy chart of factors to consider in your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts by the good folks at Search Engine Land.
Use it to
1) evaluate your current status: how are you fairing on each of them (from none at all to perfection – but also "doesn't apply" might be a valid response
2) determine what you could change
3) research how you can achieve your targets
4) figure out how you can measure your progress
5) make a plan
6) apply your strategy with periodic checks on the results
Search Engine Land have the table in many forms including a PDF here http://searchengineland.com/seotable
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[Update]
In an excellent move of fairness, the Google Chrome page no longer appears on the organic results for "browser".
Here is a screenshot (G+ doesn't allow me to add another photo on this post any more)
http://giannopoulos.net/2012/01/03/if-google-bans-google/google-chrome-demoted/
Here is Matt Cutt's post on the matter
https://plus.google.com/109412257237874861202/posts/NAWunDzJSHC
It would be nice if they also stopped the paid ad for Google Chrome from appearing on the top spot of the results by the way…
[/end]
will it break the internet? Apparently Google has been paying for blog posts about Google Chrome, against it's own rules for the rest of the internet. On the issue:
The original article by SEOBook
http://www.seobook.com/post-sponsored-google
Article on Search Engine Land
http://searchengineland.com/googles-jaw-dropping-sponsored-post-campaign-for-chrome-106348
Google's "Paid Links" guidelines
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66736
Google says it's the marketing firm that did it
http://www.theverge.com/web/2012/1/3/2678948/google-unruly-media-response-chrome-sponsored-post
Damn marketers! We told you, "NO EVIL"!
P.S. I love the quote from Search Engine Land: "So what have we got? Google’s paid for a content-light post that’s not a review of Google Chrome, nor a review of how Google Chrome helps small business, pushing a video that also doesn’t show how Google Chrome helps small businesses."
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This is the blog of Markos Giannopoulos, devoted to web development, technology, the internets, etc. I've been working on, in and around the web for the last 16 years. You can find me on Google+ and Facebook.
