Webmaster

Google Update Analytics

Here's an email I received from Google announcing the new upgrades to the popular Analytics software. If you're not using Analytics, you should be ... check it out.

We are happy to announce the release of a new version of the Google Analytics reporting interface. Since you are an existing user, you will automatically be upgraded - there is no action required on your part. To access this new version click the "View Reports" link next to any profile in your account by logging in at http://www.google.com/analytics.

For a smooth transition, we've listed some helpful resources and notes below.  Also, you will still be able to access your old reporting interface for at least a month by clicking "Previous Interface" below the "View Reports" link for any profile in your account. Other than a few improvements detailed in the version notes below, your data and configuration settings remain unaffected by your choice of interface and your data continues to be tracked in the same way as it was prior to this redesign.

*What is new?* In the new version, your reports have been redesigned for clarity, greater visibility of important metrics, and ease of use.  Here are just a few of the features you'll notice:

- Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format.      

- Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can email to others.      

- Trend and Over-time Graph: Compare time periods and select date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.      

- Contextual help tips: Context sensitive Help and Conversion University tips are available from every report.The new interface has everything the previous interface had and more. In addition, links within reports make it easier to navigate related information and explore your data.

The following resources are available to help you get the most from the new Google Analytics interface:

- Report Finder Tool: will help you see where data from the previous interface is located within the new version (it is also linked to from within your reports on the left nav menu.      

- Product tour:        http://services.google.com/analytics/tour/index_en-US.html      

- FAQs for more details about the new version:
http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/static.pypage=FAQ.cs

- Help Center: includes articles related to the new version:         http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/      

- Support: if you encounter any issues with the new version that you can't resolve with the help center, you can contact our support team through the Contact Us link at the bottom of the help center web page, or receive higher-touch support through a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant. Find one here:        http://www.google.com/analytics/support_partner_provided.html      

- Analytics Help Forum: If you would like to discuss the new version or get tips from experienced users, please visit the Analytics Help Forum in English within Google Groups at:        http://groups.google.com/group/analytics-help

Google Changes AdSense?

What's this you say? Google has made changes to AdSense?!

Affiliate Blogger posted right behind Jennifer Slegg, who had announced to the world that Google was making a significant policy change in their AdSense program.

If you're at all interested in Google's AdSense program then these are must read blogs.

Blogs and Google

Well, it's been several weeks since Google updated their Page Rank algorythms and again, they shook things up pretty good.

You have to keep asking yourself ... Is this search engine getting better or worse?  I mean, when you do a search are you getting what you wanted? I'm not.

What I've noticed specifically is that Google is now punishing blogs like this one that are published through a hosted solution like Typepad or WordPress.

You know, I could maybe understand WordPress because those blogs are free and are abused by the black hat SEO community to help them gain better rankings. But punishing Typepad?

Think about it ... we pay for the service ... we pay for the ability to blog here ... clearly we are real bloggers with real online journals. Why would you punish a paid service? That's like throwing the baby out with the bath water.

I for one, am going to keep my account with Typepad despite Google ... or is that inspite of Goggle?! Either way, I think people are growing tired of Google stirring the pot so often and at some point, only the black hatters will care enough to keep playing with Google.

Google Slam Dances Their Affiliate Partners

It's the middle of summer and Google has decided to once again change the rules while their affiliate partners are out playing in the sunshine.

Google affiliate partners are the AdWords publishers who run all of those contextual ads all over their websites, blogs and ezines.

I hate to say I told you so, but if you've read any of my blogs I've been saying that all affiliates and webmasters need to diversify their ad revenue. If you go with 100% Google, you will get burned eventually. And, to make matters worse Google will not tell you why they revoked your account. You have to guess at what you did wrong. Oh, and you can forget getting another Google account ... time to look at Yahoo or Kanoodle or TextAds or Adbright.

And the Google publishers aren't the only one's hit by this change in Google's summertime feel-good policy. According to the folks at Affiliate Classroom, "With the recent update of Google's landing page algorithm, many marketers that had been paying five or ten cents a click (or less) are now required to bid at least 50 cents to a dollar or more. There are also reports of some advertisers who have kept their bid prices, but those bids are now buying only 3rd or 4th page ad positions, where they used to buy first page positions."

And you thought the price of gasoline was high this summer?!!

I really think this is Google's first move towards addressing the ... let me rephrase that ... towards crushing other affiliate programs out there. I predicted this move after Google partnered up with Commission Juntion and forced CJ to change all their affiliate links to JavaScript links.

http://affiliate-blogger.com/?p=19

https://affiliatesblog.wordpress.com/2006/06/22/google-finally-launches-their-affiliate-network/

http://affiliateblog.affiliate-guild.com/2006/06/commission_junction_search.html

https://affiliateblogger.wordpress.com/2006/07/25/breaking-free-from-google/

Clearly Google's going after the affiliate market and you affiliates and webmasters who continue to foolishly put 100% blind faith into Google AdWords/AdSense as your sole source of income are in for some rough times ahead.

You should also have a read over Affiliate Classroom's blog entry on surviving this summer block buster as presented by Google.

Google Search Tricks, Tips and Hints

Here's some great information from Graywolf about Google Search Terms and how they work. This tells you how to do a proper search and you can probably figure out how to use it to SEO your website better  as well. I'll let you figure that out because that's a whole  other post <wink>.

Google AdWords Editors Asleep?

Is that snoring I hear over at Google AdWords or has Google changed their AdWords policies?

I was doing a little keyword research this morning over at the Google search engine, taking a look to see how my favorite affiliate program directory is doing in the seo rankings ... when what to my wonder eyes did I see, but ...

Sponsored Links
Adult affiliate program
50% Partnership
Fresh Teen Sites To Promote
www.f*cking-cash.com

Screen shot of the page - Google AdSense
Keywords - affiliate program directory

So, now I'm wondering if that was a total foobar on Google's part or if Google is now mixing adult content ads with their general population. My guess is that somebody at Google is going to have a very bad day today.

Google Base Goes Beta

I recently took a little visit to Google to grab a new copy of their Google toolbar, when what to my wondering eyes did appear ... but something called Google Base ... and more specifically the part  that says "Post your content on Google for free" caught my eye.

Looks as though you can upload bulk information to the new Google Base too. Sweet!

Directions for Uplodaing Bulk Information:

1. Register

Before you submit your bulk upload, you'll need to register it with Google Base. Registering your bulk upload lets our system know where to look for your file and how to process it.

Note: We carefully enforce the Google Base program policies and reserve the right to remove any item. Please review the program policies and our editorial guidelines before beginning.

2. Format

After you've registered your bulk upload, you'll need to format your items in one of our supported plain text formats. If you're not sure which formatting standard to use, we recommend tab-delimited plain text.

See detailed instructions for: Tab-delimited, RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, and Atom

3. Upload

After you've created your file, you can upload it to the Google Base using web upload or file transfer protocol (FTP). We recommend using FTP if your file is more than 3 megabytes in size or if you have lots of files to manage.

Please review our detailed upload instructions.

A few other things...

• Most types of items (such as products, services, housing, autos, wanted ads, jobs, travel, events, and news) automatically expire after 30 days.
• We recommend that you send us a new bulk upload each time information in your bulk upload changes or becomes inaccurate. You can send a new bulk upload file as often as once a day.
• We can't guarantee where your items will appear.

And, you have to REGISTER to be able to do bulk uploads.

About the Author: Bobbie Grennier is an SEO copywriter and SEO web site writer at www.SEO-Writing.com. She publishes several blogs, but you're most likely to be interested in her Webmaster Blog at webmaster.typepad.com. Visit her web sites www.wild-wolf.com or www.wildwolf.ws for more SEO information or FREE reprint articles.

Google Page Rank Changes

Google's Matt Cutts has posted on their blog that Google had started to do a "Google Dance" on their page rank application. I've been monitoring the PR of my websites, and this morning I awoke to find some dramatic changes.

I had one site go from a 6PR to 0PR ... not sure how that's possible, but none the less ... bye-bye income for that site for now since I was selling text links.

On the bright side, a majority of my sites increased by one PR point, which was encouraging although none increased to anything higher than a 4PR, with most going from 2PR to 3PR.

I also had one of my business sites finally get PR at all. Google had been ignoring the site all together. It went from 0PR to 3PR.

What it sounds like to me, is that Google has done some updating and repair work on their PR tool which has been all but broken over the last six months.

The latest Google search engine updated version may include an update to PageRank, as Cutts noted:
Google updates the index for reasons beyond page rank. Cutts wrote about some of those other reasons:

Just to give you a heads-up, I think a new set of backlinks (and possibly PageRank) will probably be visible relatively soon; I'm guessing within the next few days. I still expect some flux after that though, just to let you know.

Some changes are hardly noticed at all. Some changes (e.g. user interface improvements) are more visible. Some changes have nothing to do with spam, such as the changes for Chinese and Europe…. Some changes do try to decrease spam or increase core quality.

Okay, so now that Google has finished it's dance on our PR rankings ... it's time to update those websites and try to figure out this latest change. You know, I love MSN Search more and more everyday!

Google PageRank Update

I'm going to pass along an interesting email Wild Wolf got from WebPro News. Maybe it will be of some interest or use to you too?!

Another PageRank Update Is Underway
Chris Richardson | Contributing Writer

It actually started Thursday night, but yes, Google is in the
process of updating PageRank to the usual fanfare. As mentioned
before, when Google does an update like PageRank or backlinks,
people flock to the forums to discuss the results.

This update is no different. While we can debate whether or not PR
has any meaning until we are blue in the face, this does not stop
people from sharing their reactions. At WebProWorld, this very
topic is being discussed and what you get is the usual happiness
(my green bar increased) or the disappointment
(my PR dropped from 6 to 3. WHY????).

In fact, the topic starts with a post that sums up how people react
to the update news:

    Swore I would never do this, but my site appears to be going
    from 5 to 6. Could the update be underway?

Another example:

    I can confirm, backlinks increased from 233 to 918, but PR
    dropped from 6 to 5....uuuhhhh??

And another:

    YES! My site went from PR5 to 6! Links still not counted tho.

Then you get these types of posts that try and discuss the
usefulness or futility of PageRank updates:

    The logic of PR doesn't make sense to me anymore. PageRank was
    supposed to measure IBL's vs OBL's. My new site has been
    through 2 PR Toolbar updates. The pages with the least amount
    of     IBL's have PR 5's. The pages with the most IBL's have
    4's. Even     a 1-month-old page with NO outside IBL's now has
    a PR 5. I find that amusing.

One thing is sure about PageRank updates: they make for a good time
reading the forum posts discussing them. If you would like, you can
test the update's effects on your site at the following
datacenters:

216.239.37.147
216.239.39.104
216.239.37.105
64.233.161.104
64.233.161.147

Google Earth Launches

Google has officially launched their Google Earth site which combines the Google Maps technology with their satellite technology ... and adds some bells and whistles.

http://earth.google.com/

According to Google...
Want to know more about a specific location? Dive right in -- Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.

Best of all Google says it's FREE, but is anything ever really free?!

The initial download is free, but Google is offering upgrades ... two upgrades to be exact .... Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro.

Google Earth Plus is an optional $20 upgrade adding GPS device support, the ability to import spreadsheets, drawing tools and better printing.

For professional and commercial uses, Google Earth Pro, a $400 upgrade,  is the ultimate research, presentation and collaboration tool for location information.  There's a 7-day free trial, so you can see what you'd be missing if you had an extra $400 bucks to toss at this.

I'm sure I'll be posting more on this new Google maps service offering, but for now this should keep us both busy.