April 2016 - NextJSjointviews

Microsoft Blocks Google and Chrome from Cortana on Windows10

Posted on April 29, 2016 by NextJSjointviews

Microsoft makes it really hard to recommend its products lately. Windows 10 was a great way to wash the disgusting Windows 8 taste from consumers’ mouths — initially, at least.

Microsoft explains in that section that obviously some software programs “circumvent the design” of Windows to redirect to other search engines “not designed” to work with Cortana.

Read Also: Google Search Will Show Live TV Listings Soon!

Here’s the key section:

“Unfortunately, as Windows 10 has grown in adoption and usage, we have seen some software programs circumvent the design of Windows 10 and redirect you to search providers that were not designed to work with Cortana. The result is a compromised experience that is less reliable and predictable.”

“The continuity of these types of task completion scenarios is disrupted if Cortana can’t depend on Bing as the search provider and Microsoft Edge as the browser. The only way we can confidently deliver this personalized, end-to-end search experience is through the integration of Cortana, Microsoft Edge and Bing – all designed to do more for you.”

Microsoft says blocking search providers and 3^rdparty browsers improves user experience.

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Google Testing Purple Ad Labels On Google Maps

Posted on April 27, 2016 by NextJSjointviews

Recently, Google was caught testing green colour search ad labels almost a week ago. They are at it again!

This time, Google testing purple color on “Ad” label found in Maps matching the purple pin noting the advertiser’s location on the map itself.

Read Also: Is Google Testing Green “Ad” Labels?

The purple pin distinguishes it from the red organic pins.

It doesn’t appear to be too malicious or annoying; the locations are accurate, and it will help some businesses to populate their results right to the top.

Google also began testing green “Ad” labels in the main search results a couple of weeks ago. That test appears to be running in most major markets at this point.

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7 Tips to Choose the Right Content Writing Services in India

Posted on April 26, 2016 by NextJSjointviews

The explosion of online business has made content skills one of the most demanded job skills. From small businesses to large businesses, everyone needs people who have a way with their words. Its not easy to articulate your brand’s message to the audience the right way.

But unfortunately, there aren’t enough people with the required writing skills, which has made businesses search for content writing services in India, the country with the largest English speaking population.

Read Also: Why Businesses Should Hire a Content Marketing Agency in India

But there are so many content writing services in India. How do you choose the right one? Here are a few tips to help you out.

Look at their recent work

By looking at their recent work, you would be able to know the quality of content they are currently producing. This is critical as numerous content writing services in India might have produced good work in the past. But they may not be able to sustain the quality as resources might have got replaced.

See if they have basic digital marketing knowledge

Anybody who writes content should have the basic know-how of digital marketing. It would help them to write your articles or other forms of content with the right audience in mind. They would be able to work with the right keywords or topics in demand.

Do they understand your domain?

If the writing services that you hire has writers with experience in your particular domain, then that is an additional advantage. They would be able to write better quality content for you in a shorter time frame. Even if they don’t have previous working experience, if they are interested in your domain, it is an added plus.

What types of content do they write?

When saying that they can provide you content, be sure to explain what type of content you are expecting. There is web content, copy, and technical content as well. There are numerous forms of content as well.

A good blogger might not be good at writing white papers, or someone who writes creative copy need not necessarily be strong bloggers. So understand their strengths and see if it’s what you need.

How productive can they be?

If you own an eCommerce retail portal, you would have to get content in large volumes. Is the content writing agency you are planning to hire from India capable of producing this kind of content? Even the strength of a team will not be able to tell you about the productivity. Some writers write at a furious pace while some are less productive.

You May Also Like: Choosing Good Content: Criteria by Google

Ask for pilot content

Asking for pilot content helps you gauge the best quality content a team would be able to produce. It gives you an insight into the language skills of the writers involved and their level of productivity. You cannot expect the same level on an everyday basis. But it will let you know what to expect from the content writing agency.

Look out for editing and revision policies

Does the writing team offer you to do whatever revisions you require or are there limitations? Also, check if they follow particular guidelines for editing and proofreading.

If there are good writers, and the editing is also good, then you would have a team that can convey your ideas to the audience in a brilliant way while also going up the rankings. And finally, as they say, beware of services that come in for too low or too high a fee.

Facebook Tweaks News Feed Ranking Algorithm

Posted on April 25, 2016 by NextJSjointviews

On Thursday, Facebook announced that it will start using time spent reading or viewing content on third-party pages as a factor in its news feed ranking algorithm.

This update to ranking will take into account how likely you are to click on an article and then spend time reading it.”

Facebook will also try to avoid too many posts from the same page that are together in a row in people’s News Feed.

We anticipate that most Pages won’t see any significant changes. Some Pages might see a small increase in referral traffic, and some Pages might see minor decreases”, Facebook said

Read Also: Facebook will Allow Publishers to Post Sponsored Content

Among the many factors Facebook takes into account when ranking items on a user’s News Feed are who posted the item, when it was posted, the type of content published and how other users have interacted with such posts. Each factor plays a part in the unique relevancy score Facebook’s algorithm assigns to News Feed posts for each user, according to vice president of product management Adam Mosseri.

Thus, Facebook will now make an attempt to predict how long people spend viewing a piece of content.

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Google Search Will Show Live TV Listings Soon!

Posted on April 22, 2016 by NextJSjointviews

At National Association of Broadcasters conference Google announced that it’s adding a new feature to Google search: air times for TV shows. So, when you search for a show or movie, Google will tell you when it will be available in cable.

Along with this, Google says that DoubleClick, its ad platform is getting better at targeting specific demographics on both live and on-demand TV.

It’s also automating some of the work in choosing which ads air during breaks, “so two automotive ads don’t appear in the same commercial break- and other rules like making sure an alcohol and children’s cereal ad don’t appear in the same commercial break.”

Read Also: Is Google Testing Green “Ad” Labels?

The company says searches for TV shows and films on mobile are up than 55 percent over the past year. Google is on its way to becoming people’s one-stop location on the web for everything they need — even TV listings now. There’s no word on when the update will be rolling out, though the company says “soon”.

This makes using Google for finding places for streaming or buying a show unreliable, and it’s unclear to what extent that will change as the new “live TV” updates roll out.

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Google Maps Now Testing Local Ads

Posted on April 20, 2016 by NextJSjointviews

Now Google maps testing local finder ads.

Many people on Twitter reporting it now

Below shown is the screenshot:

Now, there is lot of chatter out in the community related to this.

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Google is Showing Additional Search Filters for the Local Results in Mobile

Posted on April 18, 2016 by NextJSjointviews

Now when you search on Google about local intent and it shows “local pack” or ‘3 pack”, then Google may offer extra search filters for the particular search.

Google local results will get additional search filters for the searcher’s location and history.

Read Also: Is Google Testing Green “Ad” Labels?

For example, if you search for [la bella], Google offers me additional filters to show them “within 5 miles,” or “open now,” or “top rated” or even more. For others, depending on the searchers location “italian,” “pizza,” and other options. The search filters on the local pack offers the searcher new dynamic filters based on the searcher, the query and their location.

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Is Google Testing Green “Ad” Labels?

Posted on April 15, 2016 by NextJSjointviews

Recently, several users in UK seen green “Ad” labels.

Google appears to be testing a new color for the “Ad” label on text ads in the SERP.

Normally, in UX testing, different colors will be tried out to determine which are most effective as calls to action.

Read Also: Google Delivers Warning to Website Owners

In this case though, the motives are likely to be different. Google’s aim is to deliver clicks for its advertisers and thus more revenue for itself.

This test is pretty ubiquitous — though I have yet to get to see it live.

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Great! Google Slapped Mass Penalties for Outbound Links

Posted on April 13, 2016 by NextJSjointviews

Google slaps mass annual action for outbound links over free product reviews.

Google’s John Mueller commented on some of those threads last night, saying it is related to the warning over free product reviews that are not nofollowed.

Some said that that warning would not lead to penalties or manual actions but in my history of covering these penalties, Google has always issued penalties after issuing a warning. And here it is, the penalty for free product reviews without using nofollows.

Yesterday, John Mueller commented on 3 different threads related to this.

It looks like you’re getting some good advice here already (thanks, everyone!). Travler’s link

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/03/best-practices-for-bloggers-reviewing.html

– is one you should really be going through (in addition to the more general webmaster guidelines). There’s absolutely no need to nofollow every link on your site! However, those that are there because of an exchange (such as a product or service for a review) should have a rel=nofollow on links to the product, to their sales pages, and to any social media profiles that are linked because of the review. Also, it’s always a good idea to clearly label these kinds of posts for your readers too.

Once you’ve cleaned up links like those, feel free to submit a reconsideration request through Search Console, so that the webspam team can review your changes and remove the manual action. More on that at

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35843

For many of the sites that posted about this message recently, Travler’s link (thanks!) is spot on:

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/03/best-practices-for-bloggers-reviewing.html

(this was also shared on other Google blogs)

In particular, if a post was made because of a free product (or free service, or just paid, etc), then any links placed there because of that need to have a rel=nofollow attached to them. This includes links to the product itself, any sales pages (such as on Amazon), affiliate links, social media profiles, etc. that are associated with that post. Additionally, I imagine your readers would also appreciate it if those posts were labeled appropriately. It’s fine to keep these kinds of posts up, sometimes there’s a lot of useful information in them! However, the links in those posts specifically need to be modified so that they don’t pass PageRank (by using the rel=nofollow).

Once these links are cleaned up appropriately, feel free to submit a reconsideration request, so that the webspam team can double-check and remove the manual action.

You can find out more about these topics at:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35843 https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/96569

From a quick check, it looks like you removed the post I noticed on your site, so I guess at least that one’s cleaned up. Travler mentioned (thanks!) the relevant link here:

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/03/best-practices-for-bloggers-reviewing.html

(this was also shared on other Google blogs)

In general, when you’re getting a free product (or service, etc) in exchange for a post, you need to make sure that the links there are nofollowed — be it to the original product page, a sales page or affiliate link on a site like Amazon, or to their social media profiles. You don’t need to nofollow everything on your blog, just the links that are involved in an exchange like this. Obviously, it’s also good to disclose this kind of relationship to your readers too — on the page I was looking at, you did that already, but others might not be doing that.

Once you’ve cleaned up these kinds of outbound links by adding a nofollow where appropriate, feel free to submit a reconsideration request

( https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35843 ) so that it can be reviewed by our webspam folks & so that they can remove this manual action on your site.

So, This is the way how Google works with these warnings.

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