In September 2011 Google made some significant changes to their data feed requirements. MightyMerchant has made the appropriate updates to our feed templates, but if you manage your feed yourself it is important that you log-in to your Google Products account to be certain that your feed is running properly. MightyMerchant customers using our Managed Feed Service need take no action.

We recommend you check on your Google feed regularly. Going through these steps every month will help you stay on top of any feed import or data quality issues that may crop up.

Visit our documentation page explaining how to verify your Google Product Feed.

Have you noticed that your analytics for the past month look a little different?

In a move that is bound to make Internet privacy advocates cheer and SEO’s and website owners jeer, Google recently announced that when users are signed in to their Google account, the search service is taking them to the secure search page (https:www.google.com . . . note the extra ‘s’) by default. If you’re not logged in to your Google account you can navigate to the secure site directly if you choose to. This change encrypts users search queries—a useful and desirable feature when users are on a public WiFi network or hotspot, but it has significant implications for site owners using Google Analytics to track their site visitors.

In unsecure search, site owners not only know that a visitor came from Google, but they get individual data about each referral, for instance, whether the user came from another link or what specific search term they used. With secure search, site owners will know only that the user came from Google.

Paid search data will not be affected.

What is a victory for privacy means that website owners that want this information they used to have access to will now have to pay for it. While this change is estimated to affect only about 10% of a site’s traffic, that’s 10% less data that you will now have access to.

You can still use your Google Webmaster Tools account to see your top 1000 search terms each day for your site, but that data is just a sample, doesn’t show every single search term, and the numbers are rounded off.

As business owners, how do you feel about this change?

One of the mysterious things about search is that we know what we want when we search, but the computer doesn’t. Google’s entire kingdom has been built upon their efforts to break through this barrier to delivering users the information that they really want.

Google just announced an improvement to their algorithm that delivers fresh content when you want fresh content, and all content when the freshness might not matter so much. Let’s explain more. . .

Current events and news pop up on a daily, hourly, and minute-by-minute basis. If you search for a current event, you probably want the most recent information. Even something from a day or two ago might be too old to be useful.

If you search for information about a football game score, you might want the one from last week, but there’s an even better chance that you want scores for the game that ended earlier that day.

An event such as the Olympic takes place every 4 years, but if you search for Olympics today, you probably don’t want results from the last Olympics–there’s a good chance you’re interested in the one that is coming up next summer.

Google Search uses a “freshness algorithm” they call Caffeine that delivers the most up-to-date results, even when, like the Olympics example, you don’t specify Olympics 2012.

The results from Caffeine have now enabled Google to improve the ranking algorithm that they say impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you the most recent results that you probably want.

If you’re searching, for instance, for Occupy Wall Street info, you may get results that are only minutes old, rather than news reports from last week.

But there are lots of times when the most recent results don’t matter that much, for instance, when searching for a recipe or some other reference point. In those cases, the algorithm update now better “understands” what you want and delivers freshness to meet your needs.

While on the surface this seems like a great thing, SEOs and webmasters are concerned, and rightly so. This change may put even more influence on content that changes on a regular basis. If your site doesn’t update very often, you may want to keep an eye on how this affects your rankings. Let’s say you have helpful, informative articles on your site about your products. If they haven’t been updated since last year, Google may not pay much attention to them anymore in favor of articles about the same topic that have been updated more recently.

Also, for the user, the best search results are the ones that are relevant, not just fresh. If you have any doubts about how you should proceed with your site updates and optimization in light of this change, here’s our advice:

Relevancy will always be important. If you can make updates to your site’s content, review, articles, etc., do so. But don’t update haphazardly so that you’re updating with low-quality information just for the sake of updating. And, like most things search-related, keep an eye on things. There are opportunities for webmasters in any industry to provide fresh, relevant content.

Writing blog posts can require a considerable amount of time and effort. All of that hard work can be pretty rewarding, but only if your posts are reaching their intended audience. Imagine all of your potential readers. Your content could be just what they are looking for. The trick is connecting these users to your blog, and search engines like Google are a big key to making this happen. Fellow bloggers, it’s time to rethink the way we blog.

Before you begin, you need to determine the keyword phrases that you want to focus on with this post. Ask yourself the question, “What are my potential readers going to search for in Google?” Come up with one to three terms (depending on the size of the post). Now, keeping these terms in mind, let’s talk search engine-friendly blog posts!

First up, and this is a big one, make sure that your target keywords are in the blog title. Google (and other search engines) do not look at web pages the same way people do. When search engines look at a site to index them, they are looking at the text on the page.

And most blogging platforms are built so that your page title (at the very top of your browser window) and page heading (the main header on the page) are among the first things that the search engines will see. And in general, search engines consider the terms to be more important the earlier they appear on a page. Editing your page heading should be as simple as filling in the post’s “Title” field. And most blogging platforms like WordPress have plugins that allow you to customize your page titles.

Next, get those keywords into the body text of the blog post. Repeat them several times throughout the post. Feel free to use your keyword phrases as many times as makes sense for the readability of the post. Try to naturally work the phrases in a few times. Just keep in mind that search engines are smart, and can detect when a word is unnecessarily being repeated again and again.

Also, blog posts are a great place to make use of incoming and outgoing links. As you are writing the post, you can link to other posts on your blog, or to related pages on your website. Then, once your post is live, you can link to it in the future from other posts or pages. This can be helpful because search engines generally assume that pages with incoming links are of a higher authority than those without. Whenever possible, use your target keywords as the actual link text (It’s like extra credit). Do this when the links will be useful to the reader. Remember that neither search engines or users will look favorably on a site that lacks relevant content.

Finally, don’t overlook the “Tagging” option. The vast majority of blogging platforms allow you to add “Tags” to your posts. Tags are an organizational tool to help people and search engines find what they are looking for. Use them to reflect the content represented in your post.

Remember that with search engine optimization (SEO), you are attempting to establish a page that is functional for both the search engines and the users. These tips and strategies could be great tools for you in your future blogging experiences. And remember that the absolute number one thing that people and search engines are looking for is good, old-fashioned, quality content.

Have you heard of Google’s new “+1″ button? It parallels the Facebook ‘Like’ button and strengthens Google’s grasp on social media and their attempts to deliver personal, customized, relevant search results.

There is a big difference between Facebook’s system of liking posts and Google’s button, and it has its own unique implications for SEO and blogs, Adwords users, and how you present your business to the masses. For SEO adopters and bloggers, the worry is that a site that isn’t getting “+1s” will be pushed down the search results in favor of sites that are more heavily “liked.” Users can also “+1″ AdWords ads, and although at this time Google says that they won’t use that against their advertisers, they are collecting a lot of information about what ads their users like which we can bet they will find some significant use for.

Check out “Google’s New +1 Button” article, which we just posted on HeroWeb.com, for the complete run down on how you can use this new development to your advantage, as well as these and other pitfalls to be aware of.

There’s a good chance that you have thought about ways that search engine optimization can help your website. But maybe you’ve had a conversation about it with a friend who told you that SEO takes too long, that it’s too expensive, or even that it wouldn’t work.

If that sounds familiar, I want to urge you to take 5 minutes to read the article we just posted called “Why SEO Is Not An Immediate Fix.”

The article addresses many of the common concerns that people have about search engine optimization: namely that it does take some time, and this article explains why. The good news is that it doesn’t always take as long as you think….in our more than 15 years in this industry we have seen sites benefiting almost immediately from on-site optimization.

We encourage you to think about an SEO campaign as “marketing to a search engine,” and again, this article explains what we mean by that. You no doubt already have a plan in place for how you are going to market your website to potential new customers–maybe direct mailing, Facebook ads, or event sponsorships–SEO is a way to “market” yourself to search engines, so they first of all become interested in your site, and secondly, stay interested in your site. Check it out.

Don’t be caught in a web of deceit.

Yesterday, an article by New York Times writer David Segal appeared in many newspapers around the country. The article was remarkable because, for one thing, it made the topic of “black hat” or deceitful search engine practices front page reading for the general population—most of which not only don’t know what search engine optimization is, but don’t care how Google determines what results they see, because they’re not involved in the search or ecommerce industries.

But the other remarkable factor was that it documented how the website of one of the United States’s largest and most successful retailers, JC Penney, dominated the search results for months, via ways which Google says was unethical. Now, Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s webspam team, says Google will “take strong corrective” action, which essentially means that JCPenney.com is “demoted” in the search engine rankings.

What Google claims JC Penney did—and which JC Penney claims they did not authorize—was paying for links into the site. Paid links by the thousands came to JCPenney.com from questionable sites. The links inflated JC Penney’s “authority” with Google, as their search algorithm highly values incoming links, and led to JCPenney.com dominating the unpaid search engine results page for several months for just about every shopping related term you could think of, such as “dresses,” “home décor,” “tablecloths,” “luggage,” “furniture,” “skinny jeans” . . . the list goes on and on.

The article says that some of the 2,015 pages that linked to JCPenney.com were site-related, in other words, they related at least nominally to clothing, but most did not. The links to JCPenney.com came from sites that the writer describes as “hovels”: sites about “diseases, cameras, cars, dogs, aluminum sheets, travel, snoring, diamond drills, bathroom tiles, hotel furniture, online games, commodities, fishing, Adobe Flash, glass shower doors, jokes and dentists,” among many others. The article describes this practice as “black hat” optimization: “the dark art of raising the profile of a website with methods that Google considers tantamount to cheating.”

The lesson from all this for the average business owner is that incoming links do matter. In fact, they matter a lot. But think twice before you succumb to the pressure of the sites that advertise hundreds of links for the low low price of . . . whatever. In most cases, even with companies that appear to be the most reputable, you will end up with spammy links to your site just like JC Penney did, and eventually, your site will get dinged, just like JC Penney did. It may take a while for Google’s spam team to find your site and discover what you’re doing, and you may even enjoy some benefits from the increased exposure if you do fall for these “link schemes,” but when the search engines do find out, your company gets the equivalent of concrete shoes and you sink in Google’s search results, perhaps never to rise again.

Take some action now. Find out what links your site already has by using Yahoo Site Explorer or Open Explorer (both free tools) find links to your site. The Yahoo Site Explorer linking tools is one instance in which the Yahoo product is actually more informative than the Google product. You can search using the Google search tool link:www.yourURL.com. This search returns only a sampling of sites that are linking to yours, and in particular only the higher PageRank sites, but it’s still useful information. (Note there can be no space between the “link:” and the web page URL.)

So how can you engage more users and potentially increase merit-based inbound links? Create unique and compelling content on your site and the web in general. Use the external links tool on Webmaster Tools to learn about other sites interested in your site. Cultivate interest from other sites that relate to yours in some way. This process takes time and effort, but when you approach link building in this manner, you know you won’t be the next JCPenney.com!

Here’s an eye-opening fact I learned recently: As of December 2010, more than 41 million people visited Yelp in the past 30 days!

If you already know Yelp.com, this number may not surprise you…the site has become extremely popular among people who read and post reviews to businesses of all types, including restaurants and professional services.

If you aren’t already familiar with Yelp.com, take a look at the article about using Yelp.com to grow your business that HEROweb just posted on its site.

The article explains more about what Yelp is and some of the tools it offers (for free!) for business owners who set up a free account: you can post offers and announcements, and cultivate positive reviews (or respond to ones that aren’t so positive.

Check out HEROweb’s Yelp profile for an idea of what you can do with it, and read our article for more ideas on how Yelp can help you grow your business.

Writing a press release is a classy way to sing your own praises. It lets people know what’s going on with your business and can have a positive impact on your search engine rankings. To spark your creativity, here is a list of 40 potential topics for a press release.
1.    Changes to shipping rates / free shipping offers
2.    Set straight common myths
3.    Hosting a contest, sweepstakes or promotion
4.    Hosting a seminar, teleseminar or webinar
5.    Important company anniversary (10 years in business)
6.    Merger or acquisition
7.    Opening a new office/moving locations (for those with brick-and-mortar stores)
8.    Providing free consultations or a free sample
9.    Receiving an award (your business, you personally, or even a staff member)
10.    Speaking at a conference or event
11.    Starting a sibling company
12.    Your company is sponsoring any kind of event
13.    Your company’s contributions to the community.
14.    New product or service
15.    You’ve added significant staff (either large numbers, specific important individuals or positions)
16.    New certifications and credentials achieved by your staff
17.    You’re offering a discount on your products or services for a special reason
18.    Announcing a media appearance
19.    Announcing holiday-related sales and events
20.    Announcing that you’re available to speak on particular subjects of interest
21.    Partnering with another business or organization
22.    Sponsoring an event or team
23.    Establishing a scholarship
24.    Offering internship program with local schools
25.    Working with or making a contribution to a charity.
26.    Fund-raising or other events for the local community.
27.    Taking major steps to go “green”
28.    Celebrating an important milestone (1000th customer for example)
29.    Hiring a new executive or changing ownership of the company
30.    Your business is being restructured (such as going from sole proprietorship to a partnership)
31.    Being recognized for an accomplishment
32.    Your customers’ success stories.
33.    New research findings related to your service or product
34.    Unusual products or services that you offer.
35.    Changing the company name
36.    Changing the prices of your products or services (decreases, of course)
37.    Changing the way your products are made
38.    New Website or major development to existing site
39.    Tips, lists or feature story (Top 10 Valentine Gifts, Turn your Tired Lawn into a Suburban Paradise)
40.    Your products have been upgraded or changed in some way

Just about a month ago, Google rolled out a new user interface for local search that is quite different from the previous method, both algorithmically and visually. These changes merge the local and organic results in a new way. If you’ve used Google at all since the change you’ve probably already gotten used to it.

This screen shot shows the new interface, and how the listings with a map presence (via Google Places) are favored.

As far as placement on the search results page, the changes to the search algorithm shouldn’t make much difference to website owners who have pursued long-term, best-practice SEO strategies that include optimizing for organic results, signing up for local search accounts, using social networking sites, and obtaining reviews. So if you have some strong incoming links, have some social networking profiles or a blog set up, and have done a good job of optimizing your site for local search terms, relax! The new interface shouldn’t impact you too much. Of course, any time the Big G makes a change to the way they conduct business it makes everybody nervous and it makes sense to evaluate if your listings have changed.

Google made a big splash when they first integrated Google Local into the main search results. The local results displaced businesses that didn’t appear on the map and pushed them further down the results page. It also seemed to favor those with a strong local presence to begin with, which hurt those sites for whom local optimization had not been a priority. The biggest change with this new rollout seems to be that sites with a strong Google Local (now called Google Places) presence and weaker on-site organic optimization seem to be hurt by this the most, getting pushed farther down the search results page. Businesses with a strong Google Places listing and good site optimization will really stick out the Google search page .

So what can you do? First of all, if you don’t already have one, create a free Google Places account today. Begin creating a local presence for yourself. If you already have a Google Places account or aren’t sure…check into it and make sure the listing is as complete as it can be. Essentially, focus on what has made sound organic search optimization strategy for the past several years, local search aside: title tags and matching on-page content, a local search presence, and strong incoming links. When you create your Google Places listing, make sure to work your top phrases into your business description and use the best categories to describe your business.

Google is putting a much greater emphasis on local search. We are sure to see more changes in the months ahead as they continue to make the Google platform more relevant and useful for local searchers.