Google has done it again. It is not done with slapping sites with Panda. It will now go after sites that have too many ads above the fold. Let’s face it. We are all tired of spam-looking websites with too many ads before you get to see any decent content. Google plans to change that:

we’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.

But wait. Don’t above the fold ads perform well? Wouldn’t this be a killer for publishers who rely on ads to stay afloat. Google claims it won’t be going after sites with a normal number of ads in that area.

We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree

Google encourages webmasters to use tools such as Browser Size to figure out whether they could be in trouble. You should also circle today’s date and check your Analytics results to see whether there has been a major drop in your rankings. Making changes to your site layout won’t make an immediate difference. But Google takes note of it as its crawlers go through your content again.

Google is not going to stop making changes to its algorithm. It is expected to introduce 500+ improvements to its system. This is just one of those. So brace yourselves.

By now, everyone has seen the latest changes that Google has made to its search engine. The company has deeply integrated its Google+ network into its search engine, giving its users the chance to do more complete searches (search + social). Of course, not everyone has liked the recent change. Twitter is certainly not happy about the way Google+ results are added to the SERPs. Some privacy groups are also concerned about the ramifications of this move. Now, the FTC has announced its intention to expand its antitrust probe of Google to its social network as well.

Not surprisingly, Google users do have the option to turn off results from Google+ if they choose to. But is Google promoting its own products over the information on the web unfairly? Google is quite unapologetic about the changes it has made:

We believe that our improvements to search will benefit consumers … The laws are designed to help consumers benefit from innovation, not to help competitors.

Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for Google explained. It will be interesting to see how the FTC rules on this development. Google is clearly pushing Google+ through its search engine now (something Facebook and Twitter won’t have the opportunity to take advantage of). This is going to be an interesting year for Google or so it seems.

The RIAA and their buddies are not only after censoring the Internet and going after independent sites and online businesses, they are not too happy with Google either. The RIAA is claiming that Google has a special responsibility to fight copyright infringement. The entity agrees that Google has taken some modest steps to fight piracy but more needs to be done:

Sites that engage in infringing activity should not appear as the first results when searching for what entertainment content to download or stream. This just leads to more piracy and popularity of the site. Rather, whether a site is authorized or unauthorized to make copyrighted works available to the public should be a significant indicator in determining ranking of the result, with unauthorized sites having lower rankings than authorized sites.

The fact that Google continues to receive financial benefits from sites and applications that engage in piracy has been troublesome to those involved in the music industry. I do agree with the RIAA that the process of filing a copyright claim should be easier. We have had plenty of instances in which our own content has been stolen by content pirates. But should Google censor its results or remove YouTube videos that induce infringement?

The RIAA and its allies are determined to destroying the Internet as we know it. It is true that copyright holders have the right to challenge website listings and get them removed for copyright infringements. It is also true that Google should stop giving content thieves a revenue channel. But let’s hope Google does not go overboard with its anti-piracy measures. Nobody wins when results get censored on the Internet for bogus reasons.

Content is king. No matter how many people try to deny this very fact, your best bet as a SEO is to develop fresh, valuable content for your websites on a daily basis (sometimes twice a day). Google’s freshness algorithm is slowly but surely affecting queries that we all search for. Of course, the quality of the content you put out is important as well. Google+ is a great place to mine for content ideas. You can easily see which stories are going viral and who has helped them get there. Here are 5 ways you can use Google+ to take your content strategy to the next level:

• Content with superstars: there is a good reason some folks have very large followings on sites such as Google+. By watching what they do best and learn from them, you can take your business to the next level. You should also keep an eye on the content they share to see what may be working for them.
• Watch out for top stories: don’t have any idea what to write about? Taking a look at hot stories on Google+ could help. You can also add various searches to your sidebar and keep track of them all at all times.
• Check out G+ Ripples: By using G+ Ripples for top stories, you can see who the top influencers are and how stories have gone viral on Google+. It could help you plan your content distribution process better.
• Watch Google+ trends: Google+ does have a trends section you can check out to find out about the hottest stories. You can go through these trends on the search page.
• Keep an eye on user feedback: when you are tracking the top stories on Google+, you want to make sure you pay attention to the number of comments, +1s, and reshares they have received. That way you will get a better sense for what types of stories work on Google+.

Google+ is here to stay regardless of what some experts have claimed in the past. Taking advantage of it before others is a no brainer for smart content publishers.

In the past, we provided users with the “+” operator to help you search for specific terms. However, we found that users typed the “+” operator in less than half a percent of all searches, and two thirds of the time, it was used incorrectly. A couple of weeks ago we removed the “+” operator, encouraging the use of the double quotes, which are more likely to be used correctly.

So how do you search for more specific phrases? That’s where the Verbatim option comes into play. Just click on “more search tools” next to the SERPs to take advantage of this.

Why would you want to use this option? Simple: it gives you a more accurate snapshot of where your site ranks for a specific term. It does not personalize your results nor does it fix your spelling errors. It also don’t take into account synonyms. Not many folks may use this option. But it is still nice to have it.

Google has been making changes to its algorithm for months now. We have seen a good number of Panda updates in the past couple of quarters. Google has announced that it has made further changes to its algorithm to give priority to fresh content for certain queries. This changes is expected to affect about 36% of the queries.

We completed our Caffeine web indexing system last year, which allows us to crawl and index the web for fresh content quickly on an enormous scale. Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we’re making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness.

What does that mean to you? If you are covering topics that require daily or hourly updates, you will need to get your act together. No longer can you rely on posting once or twice a week to stay competitive in such markets. Queries related to hot topics and current events are all affected.  This is also expected to affect reviews and other time-sensitive material.

With this change Google has changed the game again. Content publishers will have to work even harder to bring high quality work to the web more often. If you are planning to update old articles, don’t forget to add update date to your pieces after your work is done.

It is with great pleasure I’d like to share that Yahoo! has completed the algorithmic transition to Bing in all global markets (except Korea), across desktop and mobile, for all Yahoo! and syndication traffic. This has been a huge effort spanning 20-plus months involving many people across Yahoo! and Microsoft. Only Korea, which involves a three-way integration between Yahoo, Microsoft and Daum, remains, and is expected to complete by the end of the year.

The future of Yahoo! is very much in question at this point. It is not clear whether the company can go on without getting acquired by a big player. There have been rumors abut Microsoft acquiring it in the past. This is a sad end for those of us who appreciate Yahoo!’s contributions to the search engine marketing field in the past few years.

Topsy will use user influence and content popularity to rank its results. Topsy digs up posts, comments, links, and profiles. It is quite powerful as it lets you know who the influential users are and which types of content are trending. The search engine is not perfect by any means but is off to a good start.

People are not only trying different search engines, they are also using longer words to find what they need. About 50% of search queries include words or more. If you are not optimizing your website for the long-tail, you are leaving money on the table.

These are not gaming changing numbers by any means. Bing still has ways to go to become a major competitor to Google. Some don’t even believe these results. But Microsoft should be encouraged.

Dealing with copycats is part of the game. Once you become successful and build a real following online, you can expect people to pay close attention to everything you do and copy you when they can. Your goal as a publisher should be to stay on step ahead of these folks. It is true that you do not want to allow people to steal your content. But there is so much you can do to stop idea thieves.

Ideas and content can be duplicated. But your personality and hard work are not as easy to. Your goal should be to make your content pieces as comprehensive as possible. As long as people are not completely lifting your work, they are going to have a very difficult time duplicating your efforts (after all they are not you). Many idea thieves want to create a ton of content in a short period of time. If your articles are thorough, they will be much harder to duplicate.

Worrying about copycats won’t get you anywhere. In this day and age, not everyone is willing to play the game by the rules. The problem for these folks is they are good at lifting ideas but may not be as competent when it comes to developing and differentiating their content. If you are willing to work hard to create killer content for your business, your competitors will have a much harder time keeping up with you over time.

The rules of the games may have changed but hard work and originality will pay off in the end.