What is Facebook EdgeRank?

• By: Milena Savovic
• Categories: Facebook, Social Media Marketing
• Comments: 0

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If you’ve been dreaming about the day when your Facebook friends actually pay attention to your wall posts, then EdgeRank may become your new best friend. EdgeRank is an algorithm Facebook uses to decide what content to post on a user’s Facebook News Feed.

So you ask me: Is there a way to manipulate this ‘EdgeRank’ thing? Why yes, yes there is.

EdgeRank is determined based on three criteria: affinity, weight, and time decay. Affinity scores are given to friends based on how often the user engages with the friend. The more activity between the user and the friend (profile views, wall posts, messaging, ‘Likes’), the higher the affinity score.  Additionally, the relationship status between you and the friend affects affinity scores. So, for example, your cousin would have a higher affinity score than a random friend on Facebook, simply because of the ‘cousin’ relationship. In addition, a friend you Facebook contact more regularily than one you don’t will also have a higher affinity score. What this means is that your Facebook posts are more likely to appear on your cousin’s and friend’s news feed than on the news feed of a Facebook friend you rarely interact with.

On the other hand, weight is based on content. News posted on a user’s wall that incorporates a photograph will get a higher score than one that is a simple text update. In addition to this, a comment will receive more weight than a simple ‘Like.’ The rule with Facebook is that a weight score will be higher if you incorporate the following content (listed according to ‘weight’): photos, videos, links, status updates, and third party apps.

The last dimension of the EdgeRank algorithm is time decay. This concept is simple. Time decay affects the score of a user’s content. Basically, a more recent post will have a better score than an older post.

SEO Inc. Comments on SMX Facebook Link Discussion

• By: John E Lincoln
• Categories: Facebook, Search Engine Optimization
• Comments: 0

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For those of you who’ve been watching the evolving social media and SEO space, you know that there have been many conversations surrounding Facebook shares.The main issue revolves around whether Facebook shares help search engine optimization or not. We at SEO Inc. do SEO all day every day, so we’d like to jump in and comment on this, but first, a little precursory information is necessary.

What Rand at SEOmoz Said

There’s a high correlation between Facebook Shares and ranking well on search engines.

Rand went on to say, there is simply a correlation. Not a cause and effect relationship. Furthermore, it is important to make a distinction here. Facebook shares are seen as the act of someone taking a piece of content and sharing it on their personal profile, a page or a group. There are certain manageable characteristics of Facebook pages vs. Facebook profiles. We will address this in a moment.

What Matt Cuts, Head of WebSpam at Google Said

Google doesn’t get Facebook shares. We’re blocked by that data. We can see fan pages, but we can’t see Facebook shares.

As we can see, Matt Cuts made a very clear point here. Google does not see Facebook shares because the data is blocked by Facebook, but they do see content on Facebook fan pages.

SEO Inc. Clears up the Issue

So we are going to spare you the entire conversation that they had at the SMX Advanced conference. There was a lot of back and forth, and in all honesty, it seemed really unnecessary and blown out of proportion. So let’s simplify!

To clarify, using Facebook to build links is a very effective strategy for SEO. We see that links on Facebook are being picked up and counted in webmaster tools, so we know that these links support the growth of an online presence. While that is the case, there are certain things you should be aware of.

Google Launches Authorship Markup! What does it mean for SEO?

• By: John E Lincoln
• Categories: Google, Search Engine Optimization
• Comments: 1

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As we know, in search engine optimization knowledge is power. The more you know about the ins and outs of the search engines the more traffic you can get into your site’s conversion process. Newly released Google authorship markup is one of those topics that could very easily slip through the cracks if you aren’t paying attention. Luckily, we are paying attention and monitoring Google updates daily.

What is Google Authorship Markup?

Google authorship markup is pretty basic. Google has now made it possible to connect content with authors. This of course has always been possible, but now there is a method that Google has created to enable this connection, which means it will be more authoritative in their view of the internet.

Here is a quote on the topic from Google.

“We now support markup that enables websites to publicly link within their site from content to author pages. For example, if an author at The New York Times has written dozens of articles, using this markup, the webmaster can connect these articles with a New York Times author page. An author page describes and identifies the author, and can include things like the author’s bio, photo, articles and other links.”

So maybe this doesn’t sound too exciting to you at first. But as an author and an SEO expert, I can tell you we’ll be able to leverage this to gain some traffic – and traffic is always exciting! But before we get into that, let’s take a look at the technical side of things so we know how to set this all up.

Google Launches Google Offers (Beta): What Now?

• By: John E Lincoln
• Categories: Google
• Comments: 0

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Everyone loves a deal right? I have friends that won’t even buy something if they aren’t getting a deal on it. Myself, I hate waiting. I rather just get what I need when I need it. Well, Google offers are good news for the bargain shoppers out there. Google Offers is yet another site offering ways for you to save online. The difference between this one and the others, it is backed by online powerhouse Google, a company flying into the merchant and services space in new ways daily; see Google Wallet & Google Checkout.

Here is an example of a Google Offer.

I know we are all excited to get our offers posted, but before we do, let’s take a second and talk about this. As of right now Google Offers is only available in the following areas (see image below). Remember, it is brand new.

I do like how Google has set up the page; I mean really, this is just good marketing. There is a clear call to action, a picture showing the product or service, a timer rapidly counting down until the offer expires, and a list of how many of these offers still exist. There are also share buttons on the page that allow the offer to get more exposure.

Did I hear someone ask, “But why did you do this Google? There are already so many competitors in the space.” They are right really… There is Groupon, LivingSocial, Facebook Deals and tons of smaller sites.

Get the Google +1 Button, NOW, HURRY!

• By: John E Lincoln
• Categories: Google
• Comments: 2

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Are you excited about the Google +1 button? Well you should be. I mean it’s colorful, you can click it, it helps your rankings, what is not to like?

Get the Google +1 button for you site now.

Now that you have the +1 button, let us tell you about it…

Google has introduced the +1 button to make sites more personal and more social. By hitting +1, it will allow you to recommend a piece of online content to your friends, similar to the Facebook “Like” button.

The Google +1 button is available in two places, in search results (only when you are logged-in to Google) and on publishers sites who have taken the time to add it. Here is a statement from Google on the subject.

“Since we announced +1, we’ve gotten lots of requests from Google search users and webmasters alike for +1 buttons in more places than just search results. That’s why today we’re making the +1 button available to sites across the web. Sometimes you want to recommend a web page after you’ve visited it. After all, how do you know you want to suggest that great article on Spanish tapas if you haven’t read it yet?

Google has also implemented the + 1 button on their own sites including, Android Market, Blogger, Product Search and YouTube.

So How do you get the +1 Button for your Site?

Adding the Google +1 button is pretty easy if you have basic coding knowledge. First, you’ll need to visit the +1 button tool on Google Webmaster Central. Once you are there, you will be able to grab a small piece of JavaScript. Next, take this JavaScript and implement it to the area on your site where you would like it to appear. Google has made a few sizes and styles available. 

PayPal Sues Google Over Google Wallet

• By: John E Lincoln
• Categories: Search Engine News
• Comments: 0

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Breaking News! PayPal is suing Google over their new Google Wallet release. The news was made public hours after Google unveiled it’s new system. Here is an excerpt from the PayPal blog.

Spending time in courtrooms is generally not our thing. We prefer to compete and innovate, serving our customers by offering the best way to pay and be paid. That’s how you really win. But sometimes the behaviors of people and competitors make legal action the only meaningful way for a company to protect one of its most valuable assets – its trade secrets.

We spend a lot of time and energy creating the things that make PayPal unique and a preferred way to pay for almost 100 million people around the world. We treat PayPal’s “secrets” seriously, and take it personally when someone else doesn’t. So we made a decision today. We filed a lawsuit against Google and two former colleagues who now work there, Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius.