In this week’s roundup we’ll check in again on Facebook’s Marketplace, ICANN’s takeover of the domain name system, and our awesome tools thread on SEO Chat.
We also have some mysterious threads about Google for you. It was recently revealed that Google’s manual action team has the ability to see “link labels” that Google applies to your incoming links.
What could they mean? Meanwhile, on the AdSense side of things, many WebmaterWorld members are seeing blank ads when they shouldn’t be.
We also have a discussion about conversion rate optimization happening on Cre8asiteforums that you can’t afford to miss!
Gary Illyes did an interview with Marketing Land in which he said that Google’s manual action team has the ability to look at your links and read their labels. These labels are things like “disavowed,” “Penguin real-time,” “footer link,” and others.
According to Illyes, these labels are used to determine if your site needs a closer inspection. Since Penguin went real-time and it was also revealed that it can devalue incoming links, webmasters are starting to see how different the post-Penguin 4.0 world is.
Disavows are still necessary, Illyes and Mueller assert. It’s possible that these link labels are one of the reasons why!
Conversion Rate Optimization: The Great Debate!
Cre8asiteforums member earlpearl admits that conversion rate optimization is one of those things that he’s “glossed over…for at least several years.” But after some A/B testing, he’s ready to return to the field and wonders how much progress it has made in the meantime.
Many Cre8asiteforums members take an interest in this topic, as it turns out! They’re sharing some truly valuable and fascinating insight in this thread. EGOL writes that he’s been working on improving his product photographs. First, he attended a half-day presentation “done by a guy who is widely proclaimed to be the best photographer for this type of work in the world.”
It was helpful, but EGOL got an entirely different education when an expert stepped into his workshop and showed him how to improve his photographs using his own products.
“You can learn a lot from experts… but your best results are obtained when you get specific advice – applied to your exact situation that you can use and take home and clone.”
Grumpus places such an importance on conversion rates that he says,
“Conversion rates are the FIRST objective you have to have for your site. After all, it does you no good to have visitors to the site if they can’t or won’t convert to a sale.”
Facebook Launches Marketplace: Buying and Selling in Local Communities
Facebook’s Marketplace program is a way for local communities to sell and buy goods by utilizing local groups. It’s a clever idea, and it seems to be the direction that a lot of social media platforms are going in.
It has also been plagued by problems. Right away, some local communities tried to sell and buy guns, drugs, and other illegal goods. Besides that, the members of WebmasterWorld are a bit cynical for its prospects: Selen writes
“Isn’t it ironic – millions of webmasters promote the Facebook brand to their own visitors for free… Now these visitors go to Facebook and never come back to your site because they have no reason of doing so. Guess who wins in the long term?”
Blank Ad Units Appear in AdSense
WebmasterWorld members are noticing a rash of blank ad units on their sites. These blank units aren’t only costing them money – they’re creating a poor user experience as well. WMaster99 writes that they’re seeing blank ads every now and then, and
“Under Clicks > Impressions, I’m seeing that the impressions don’t match the visitors since the blank ads started appearing.”
Member charvel has written in with a fix for their site:
“I use Drupal and in the text editor profile I use for pasting code I had inadvertently set it to insert <br> on line breaks…”
Drupal users, check it out! Everyone else – follow this thread for (hopefully!) more details from Google support!
ICANN Now the Ultimate Overseer of Domain Name System
ICANN has apparently been running this system from behind the scenes for years, but the U.S. government only recently turned over official control. WebmasterWorld member bill writes
“The US government connection had some oversight, but it wasn’t like the US government ran the thing… The whole ‘the US is ceding control of the Internet’ angle seems to come from people who don’t understand the organization or how the Internet works….”
Educate yourself in this thread!
SEO Chat’s Useful Tools Thread!
SEO Chat members are always hungry to learn more and try out the latest toys. In this thread, they share the useful tools they’ve discovered over the years… as well as give reviews and critiques of new tools that they’ve just discovered! If you’ve found a tool and are wondering how it works, try making a post in this thread!
I’m sure one of our members would be happy to test drive it and give you their impression. It’s a great thread for newbies, too – if you’re building your first SEO toolbox, make this your first stop!
The post Google Labeling Links and Blank Ad Units: Weekly Forum Update appeared first on Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog.
