Google's update on local search results and Pigeon

By this time every one must have noticed/read about Google's new Update on local searches. Since Google didn't provide this Local Search Algorithm update any name, Search Engine Land has provided this  a name as "Pigeon Update" and the reason that they are providing behind this update is that "because this is a local search update and pigeons tend to fly back home."

IS IT A PIGEON UPDATE?

It is said that this update has benefited Yelp results. Earlier, Yelp claimed that Google is partial while displaying local results. The links of Yelp were shown with lower ranks even if somebody types Yelp with his local query. But now, after Pigeon update things are fine for Yelp.

Google has informed that this update is initially working on US English results and will provide the most relevant experience for users searching for local results.

Google has not yet shared any details on percentage of queries will get impacted with this algorithm, or it will hit any spam algorithm or what other languages/countries would have the roll up on this update.
Let's wait for the details on this and discuss further about this new update.

Save now and read later-new feature announced on Facebook

Facebook has announced new feature for is users, you can now save posts on Facebook to read them later. The posts can be a page's posts, links, movies, places etc.
You must have felt somewhere while browsing Facebook, about the need of such a feature. Sometimes you wish to show someone a post you liked a lot and shared it too but somewhere it gets lost in news feed. Also, there are things that you don't want to share but certainly want to read later; Facebook has made your wish come true.

HOW CAN YOU SAVE THE ITEMS ON FACEBOOK?
Below are some snapshots that I've shared to make it easier to understand on how to save items on Facebook?

The option to save the post is highlighted.

WHERE CAN I SEE MY SAVED ITEMS ON FACEBOOK?

On left corner where your name and other notifications are shown (messages, groups, games, news feed etc.), just there you can see the saved items. 

The box highlighted in red shows the saved post.

HOW THE SAVED ITEMS ARRANGED?

The saved items are arranged automatically under most suitable category.

You can see the various categories where the saved items will get placed.

CAN I SAVE A FACEBOOK PAGE?

Yes, Facebook has provided option to save a complete Facebook page for later reference(or reading).

The feature is available near the message section of a Facebook page. Check out in the screenshot below:

Other than this, there is one more thing about this feature, these saved items are private, that is they are visible to you only and if you want to share it, you can do that too. See the snapshot below:

The "lock" icon shows that it it private and I can share it if I wish too.

My first blog on LinkedIn

For past few days, I've receiving updates on LinkedIn on my connections writing blogs over LinkedIn; first I thought its some premium account feature but today morning my doubt got cleared and I was given the feature to write a blog on LinkedIn.
I have obviously written a blog on LinkedIn but yes didn't want to miss to share it here on my blog.
The LinkedIn blog has features like:

1. A basic tool bar for editing content

2. With this tool bar, add links and images too.

3. You can preview and publish the post.

4. After publishing you can even share it on other social media sites like, Facebook, Twitter, Google plus and yes LinkedIn of course.

5. Check stats like, number of views, number of likes, dislikes and yes edit the present content.

This feature will be a good source of Social Media Marketing and it would easier to reach your target audience. 

And yes, the link to the LinkedIn post is public. Search engines can crawl these links. 

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THIS?

ebay- what hit the website, Google Panda 4 or something else?

Google Panda 4.0 hit many websites and at the same time ebay got a hit wherein some of its webpages "disappeared" from Google search.
Google Panda 4.0 and Payday loans 2.0 were released last week. Panda 4.0 said to affect different languages to different extents and it affected around 7.5% of English results.
Last June, Google rolled out another type of update that says to fight with "very spammy queries" and the spammy queries were like, payday loans, insurance, accident etc. etc. The new version was rolled along with Panda 4.0 and said to hurt 0.2% English queries and queries of different languages too.

While, ebay has nothing to do with payday loans (but of-course people waited for payday to buy stuff from ebay), many of its webpages were out of Google's search.
Initially it was thought that Panda 4.0 has done this harm to ebay but sooner the real reason came out--it was a manual penalty posed on website; though neither Google or ebay has confirmed about the same.
It is thought to be a manual hit because:

• If it would be a Panda hit then complete website should vanish from Google search.
• Only pages that contained "bhp" in their URL are not there in Google search.
• Such pages were actually door way pages---which is no no thing for Google.

People are waiting for either of the parties to speak on this. Let's wait for the actual reason.

Original source: http://recode.net/2014/05/23/yes-google-punished-ebay-for-bad-seo-practices-but-it-wasnt-part-of-panda-update/

Changes on twitter profile page

Today when I logged into my mail, i received a mail saying "Give your profile a makeover." via Twitter.com. This sounded interesting and the changes were interesting too.
Seems after Facebook has made changes into its profile pages, twitter is running in the same race.

The changes that I found are:

1. A banner image (same as Facebook cover pic) of size 1500*500 pixels.
2. A profile image (placed at similar place where Facebook's profile image is placed) of size 400*400 pixels, placed at left corner of the banner image.
3. About me section is kept below the profile picture like earlier times.
4. Website link is quite visible. (thumbs up to this)
5. Trends, follower suggestions has moved from left to right.
6. Pinning a tweet to top of profile page (again a feature of Facebook page).

I've attached related screen shots below:

Changes on profile page of Twitter

Banner image and profile picture

Pin your Tweet to top of profile page

Pinned Tweet on top of profile page

Follow me on Twitter for more updates @swati28tripathi

Now Save bookmarks in Bing

With Beta version, Bing has introduced a new way to save book marks with it. Place a little box on the toolbar of the browser and save the bookmarks and check them later.
The link for Bing Saves is http://www.bing.com/saves
To save your webpages with Bing, all you need is to stay logged in to microsoft account.
Below is a screenshot of Bing's Saves page

In the above image you can see the bookmarklets marked in red boxes.
There are three more windows, showing, bookmarks saved by you, trending feeds and public feeds. As the name suggests, trending- are the topics which are talked most and public feed shows the real time tagged topics.
While you save something with Bing Saves, you can tag the webpage which eases the search of that particular topic.
With Bookmarklet "Save on Bing", you can directly save the webpage to Bing; otherwise you can paste the URL and save it to Bing as shown below:

The Floppy sign is for saving the webpage. you can see that I've saved three webpages, for one of the webpages I've provided the hash-tag too.

This is a smart approach by Bing to provide its user with universal bookmark, which he/she can access anywhere.
But remember as of now its an experiment!!!

Do you have multiple admin for Facebook Fan page?

This post is specifically for those who are dealing with Facebook fan pages and they have multiple admins to handle that fan page.

There have been a time when one of the admins has updated something on fan page that was not supposed to be shared or mistakenly shared; it was hard to trace which admin has done this. To ease such situation, Facebook has provided a solution to admins. Now, it shows the name of the admin under the post. 

As soon as you log-in to your fan page, Facebook is displaying a notification about it,

As soon as some other admin update something on fan page, the name of the admin is visible,

In the above picture you can see the other admin's name, on my fan page.

Remember that only admins could see the other admin's name. The admin's name is not public and no one can check the admin of the page (unless admin himself announces his name).

This is a fantastic update by Facebook and very much helpful to track records. 

NOTE: This update is visible for posts that updated after 20th February, 2014.

Yahoo changes the Home page

Did you check the new Yahoo Home page?
The slider has gone wider and the news section are more clearer. Earlier I had to dig in to search for sign in and check mail option, they are now placed well in the right corner.
The changes that I could find, i've marked in red.
Can you trace other changes on Yahoo homepage?
Yahoo has promised for more big and small changes. Let's wait up for the changes to come.

Poor grammar and spelling mistakes in content can harm ranking in Bing

While Google introduced "Panda" and "Penguin" for poor quality content, they never defined what kind of content is "poor quality".
Bing has taken the step regarding this and has detailed out what kind of content will be "poor content" for Bing and how can such content harm the ranking of the website. Bing has laid down a list of common mistakes that frequently happens, some common phrases that are used at wrong places, punctuation mistakes, sentence structure and many other such things.
Bing, clearly stated that when poor content is not meant for reading for humans then it is not meant to rank either.
I am a person with bad grammar and have to take these Bing English classes.
Many SEO people are appreciating the step taken by Bing as it clarifies what is a bad content unlike Google which is still not clear on what basis of bad content can your website be penalize.

Happy New Year

Thank you 2013 for giving wonderful days. Wishing 2014 to give more memorable moments, welcome to the new year 2014.

Happy New Year