Pixotri Technologies

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Watch Out, Brands: The Controversial .Sucks Domain Is Almost Here

Early registration begins later this month, but brands that want to register their trademarked names before the general public will pay a hefty price.

Among the 500+ new, generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that have been approved, few have generated as much concern and consternation as. sucks.

Before he left office, US Senator Jay Rockefeller told ICANN — the international organization that manages the internet’s domain name system — that the domain has “little or no public interest value” and called it “little more than a predatory shakedown scheme” aimed at getting businesses to spend big money on defensive domain registrations. When early reports spread about what it might cost a trademark holder to protect itself with a. sucks domain, domain industry insiders called shockingit and. crap.

Controversy or not, .sucks is almost here. A company called Momentous won ICANN’s auction last November via its subsidiary, Vox Populi, giving it the right to operate the. sucks gTLD. The early registration period — “sunrise” is the official term — starts on March 30th and general availability begins on June 1st.

What are brands to do? And what will the impact be on trademark protection and reputation management? We turned to some experts for thoughts on that. First, a look at the controversy surrounding this new domain.

Vox Populi is positioning the new gTLD as a platform for conversation. Its website declares that the domain “is designed to help consumers find their voices and allow companies to find the value in criticism.” In a phone interview with Marketing Land, Vox Populi CEO John Berard repeated that mantra, saying that the company sees “an opportunity for an increased back and forth between brands and consumers.”

Whatever consternation the video may (or may not) create, it has a way to go before it reaches the level of controversy over the pricing that Vox Populi has set for. sucks.

Companies that want to protect their names in this new gTLD may suffer severe sticker shock when they see the suggested pricing.

(screenshot from nic.sucks website)

Later this year, consumers will be able to buy a. sucks domain for $10 per year via a “consumer advocate subsidy.” Any consumers that get a domain at that price will have to redirect it to a discussion forum that will live on the everything.sucks domain. Consumers that want to run their own website using. sucks will pay $249 per year for a standard registration, unless Vox Populi has labeled the domain “premium” — those may cost more.

Meanwhile — and this is where the real controversy comes in — companies that are registered with the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) will have to pay $2,500 per domain during the sunrise period, and the same amount every year they renew their domain(s).

“The pricing is a little complicated. It’s not easily discernible,” says Michael Berkens, editor of the domain industry website TheDomains.com.

It’s worse than complicated, says Rick Schwartz, one of the domain industry’s most successful entrepreneurs. “The entire extension is based on brand extortion,” he told Marketing Land via e-mail, echoing Senator Rockefeller’s comments.

Domain industry veteran Ron Sheridan, the former business development director for Domain Sponsor and Oversee.net, agrees with Schwartz. “I can think of no other way to label it than what it is: plain and simple economic extortion,” he told us, also via e-mail.

Vox Populi deflects the accusations. Berard says the price is reflective of the value of the domain. “If you look at it as just another domain, you’re missing the point,” he says. Berard also says the $2500 price isn’t an attempt to discourage brands from registering. sucks domains. “Our intention is not to discourage brands from registering domains. Our goal is to get people [and brands] to use these. If we priced them at a buck, people would register a lot of domains and put them in the drawer.”

Vox Populi will have policies in place that won’t allow employees to register company names at the $10 per year rate. “I have no idea how they’ll enforce such a thing,” Berkens says. “Big companies have thousands of employees.”

Berard says the company will have a verification system in place for everyone that wants to register domains as a consumer, and he doesn’t think companies will try to skirt its rules. “If a brand was to do that and get found out, it would be very embarrassing for them.”

While Vox Populi sees. sucks as a platform for conversation, brands will probably only be interested in. sucks for defensive purposes — i.e., as a way to protect their trademarked names by registering domains before the general public can.

Should they?

Sheridan thinks they should. “The practical reality for big brands,” he says, “is as soon as one of their brands goes live on a. sucks domain, the social media blowback and associated negative PR will create a financial impact far and away larger than the $2,500 worst case scenario if they [register the domain] early and preemptively.”

Not everyone agrees. Andy Beal, CEO of the branding and reputation management agencyReputation Refinery, told us via e-mail that he doesn’t think most companies need to worry about.sucks. “The $2500 yearly price tag isn’t worth the investment when you consider that, for $10, a detractor can register YourBrandSucks.com and have the same impact,” he says. “When was the last time you read about a negative domain causing a reputation issue for a company? A negative tweet, Yelp review, or blog post can do far more damage.”

Legal Front: Consumers vs. Brands

There are also legal issues to think about. Consumers that have registered domains that match or are similar to trademarked terms often lose those domains if the trademark owner files a challenge.

“Some companies might just file a UDRP [Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy challenge] or go right into Federal Court and seek damages depending on use and motivation,” Schwartz says.

But “use” is a key point. In the US legal system, criticism is generally allowed under fair use law — that’s why websites with domains like paypalsucks.com and uhaul-sucks.com are owned by consumers and allowed to operate.

The. sucks gTLD “could be the hardest one to take away” via legal challenge, says Berkens — who’s also a lawyer. “If they actually put up a website [using. sucks], the consumer is probably going to win.”

It appears that. sucks is something of a minefield for big brands. We contacted almost 10 well-known consumer brands last week for their thoughts on the new domain and to ask if they plan to register any. sucks names; none answered our questions, even when we offered anonymity.

Schwartz says he thinks some brands will ignore. sucks simply because most consumers won’t even know it exists. “The majority of the 350 extensions that have already been released in the past 12 months [are] not even known by the public and may never be known.”

The bigger question, Berkens says, is whether. sucks is even necessary. He points out that angry consumers can already register “sucks”-style domains with .com, like the Paypal and U-Haul examples mentioned above, or with another gTLD. And he thinks big brands will be turned off by the pricing for this new gTLD.

“I’m guessing trademark owners are not going to pay $2,500 per year for each domain,” Berkens says. “I don’t think [Vox Populi] will get the defensive registrations. I don’t think trademark owners are going to play.”

But playing is exactly what one creative branding agency executive suggests companies do. Adam Padilla of New York City-based BrandFire thinks brands could actually have fun with the new gTLD.

“I can certainly see an edgy, socially-driven, promotional campaign centering around a. sucksdomain with matching hashtag and hilarious viral video embedded,” he told Marketing Land via e-mail. “Badbreath.sucks for a chewing gum company, boringfood.sucks for a fast food concern … the possibilities are endless.”

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http://marketingland.com/controversial-sucks-domain-almost-here-121505#.VQ1C9iwxUxQ.googleplus

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz

Today I spotted a possible large Google update starting out that may or may not be Panda related. Google said we should expect a doorway page algorithm update, they’ve already updated their guidelines.

Google’s mobile friendly algorithm is said to be more visible than Panda, which is big - although we don’t know exactly how big it will be. MozCast and SearchMetrics tools are also preparing for the mobile algorithm update.

Don’t forget that Android apps with App Indexing already benefit from this algorithm update. Google AdWords made some of the AdWords data fresher and faster. Google AdWords also updated the top movers report.

Can you turn a transactional or informational query into a brand query on Google? Google Maps reduced their phone support hours.

Did you try the Google Feud game? Finally, the Wall Street Journal published leaked FTC documents on the Google FTC probe, showing how evil they are - maybe. That was this past week in search at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Make sure to subscribe to our video feed or subscribe directly on iTunes to be notified of these updates and download the video in the background.

Pixotri technology is a creative house developing quality web designs, E-Commerce solution. SEO services and Gaming development

Visit our website:www.pixotritechnologies.com

https://www.seroundtable.com/video-03-20-2015-20030.html

Friday, March 20, 2015

Google to Improve Doorways Algorithm for Better Search Results

Google is looking to enhance users' search experience with an improved algorithm for doorway pages.

Doorway pages or sites are multiple, similar pages in user search results, all of which go to the same destination. So while these can help marketers maximize their search footprint for ranking purposes, they detract from a user's search experience.

"To improve the quality of search results for our users, we'll soon launch a ranking adjustment to better address these types of pages," Google said in a statement, adding that this change may heavily influence sites with large and well-established doorway campaigns.

To examine if your site will be considered as a "doorway page" by Google, it suggests you refer to the following questions:

Is the purpose to optimize for search engines and funnel visitors into the actual usable or relevant portion of your site, or are they an integral part of your site's user experience?
Are the pages intended to rank on generic terms yet the content presented on the page is very specific?
Do the pages duplicate useful aggregations of items (locations, products, etc.) that already exist on the site for the purpose of capturing more search traffic?
Are these pages made solely for drawing affiliate traffic and sending users along without creating unique value in content or functionality?
Do these pages exist as an "island"? Are they difficult or impossible to navigate to from other parts of your site? Are links to such pages from other pages within the site or network of sites created just for search engines?

Pixotri technology is a creative house developing quality web designs, E-Commerce solution. SEO services and Gaming development

Visit our website: www.pixotritechnologies.com

Tracking the Evolution of Google Panda Updates – From Monthly to Tremors to Missing in Action

At a recent industry event, Google’s Gary Illyes dropped a bombshell on the audience (and the SEO world). He explained that Panda was now real-time. And if that was the case, it would mean that if you’ve been impacted by Panda, then making the right changes would immediately be reflected in the search results (once Google recrawled and reprocessed your URLs). In other words, you can be hit, or recover, at any time. That was big news to say the least.

But here’s the problem. I had a hard time believing that was true from the second I heard it. And many others didn’t believe it was accurate, either.

I have access to a lot of Panda data across websites, categories, and countries. And based on having access to that data, I can typically see when Panda updates are released into the wild. That’s both confirmed updates like Panda 4.0 and 4.1, and unconfirmed updates like the sneaky 10/24/14 update, which I picked up while Penguin 3.0 was rolling out. By the way, that’s the Panda update John Mueller referenced during a recent webmaster hangout when speaking about the last time Google released Panda.

To be more specific about what I’ve witnessed Panda-wise, I haven’t seen any significant movement on sites impacted by Panda since the 10/24/14 update. I also haven’t seen fresh hits that resemble Panda attacks. In other words, large drops in traffic on websites susceptible to Google Panda. And again, many others who track Panda closely are saying the same thing.

John Mueller Confirms What We Thought – Panda Is Not Real-Time

In a webmaster hangout video from March 10, 2015, Barry Schwartz asked a question that many of us have been dying to know the answer to (especially since Gary dropped the real-time bombshell). He asked John if Panda was in fact real-time and if he could explain more about Gary’s comments.

John explained that the last Panda update was in October of 2014 and that he would have to check to see what Gary was referring to. It seems there are aspects of Panda that might be real-time, but you still need a Panda refresh or update in order to see the impact.

John speaks about Panda at 23:43 in the video:

The last point is incredibly important to understand, since many sites impacted by Panda are wondering when they can see recovery or partial recovery. With real-time comments being thrown around, some webmasters were left scratching their heads about why they haven’t seen any movement since October 2014. Well, if there hasn’t been a Panda refresh or update, they won’t see any movement… Instead, they need Panda to be released in order to see that impact.

Tracking the Evolution of How Google Rolls Out Panda

As the real-time situation unfolded, I started thinking about common questions I get from webmasters about Panda, how Google releases Panda updates and refreshes, when they occurred, etc. So below, I decided to provide a historical background of how Google releases Panda.

I’m not going to list all of the updates, but instead, I’ll explain when important changes occurred to how the algorithm rolls out. My hope is that the information below will clear up common misconceptions about Panda and how Google releases it into the wild. Then I’ll end this post with my thoughts about the future of Panda updates (and other major algorithms).

Panda 1.0 – The Cutssozoic Era

More than 15,000 years ago, when content farms roamed the Web, a new algorithm arrived called Farmer, I mean Panda. :) When Panda first hit the scene in February of 2011, it rocked the industry. Many sites that traditionally received boatloads of traffic plummeted faster than a lead anvil in a pool. It targeted low-quality content, and content farms were the core focus of attention.

Rolling Updates Every Four to Six Weeks

After Panda 1.0, Google rolled out Panda every four to six weeks and would announce those updates. Ah, those were the days... SEOs were able to put a numbering system in place, know exactly when Panda rolled out, and companies would clearly (OK, mostly clearly) understand when they were hit and what hit them.

10-Day Rollout, But Will Not Be Confirmed – The Unconfirmazoic Era

In March 2013, Matt Cutts announced that Panda was being incorporated into Google’s normal indexing process, so they wouldn’t be announcing future Panda updates. He also said this:

"Rather than having some huge change that happens on a given day, you are more likely in the future to see Panda deployed gradually as we rebuild the index. So you are less likely to see these large scale sorts of changes."

This led many to believe that Panda was approaching the real-time stage (which it wasn’t). And by the way, we absolutely saw large-scale impact from Panda after that date… so I’m not sure what Matt said was entirely accurate. More about that soon.

Then in June, Matt explained that Panda had matured to the point where Google trusted the algorithm more. Based on the maturation of Panda, Google would roll out Panda monthly, but it could take up to 10 days to fully roll out. He also reiterated that Google would not confirm future Panda updates because it was more a rolling update. That’s when I wrote a post about what this meant for Panda victims, and SEOs overall. I basically said that a new layer of complexity had arrived, and I was right.

So, we moved on and tracked Panda updates the best we could. As I mentioned earlier, I was able to track a number of the updates and tried to document them when possible. For example, here’s a post about the January 2014 update. I saw a number of Panda victims recover, while also getting calls from new Panda victims. The combination enables me to identify a specific date of the rollout. And here’s a post about the March 2014 update. You get the picture. So Panda was rolling out regularly, but Google just wasn’t confirming the updates. That’s until May of 2014, which I’ll cover next.

New Factors = Google Confirmation – The Hugozoic Era

Then May 19, 2014 arrived and my Panda Richter scale was moving so fast it almost set fire to my office. Panda 4.0 rolled out and it was HUGE. Google announced the update after many of us saw significant movement across sites impacted by Panda, while also seeing many fresh hits. And many of those hits were extreme.

Pixotri technology is a creative house developing quality web designs, E-Commerce solution. SEO services and Gaming development.

Visit our website: www.pixotritechnologies.com

3 Signs Your SEO Campaign Is Dying – and How to Fix It

SEO is a long-term strategy to gain more visibility and more traffic for your online brand, but accurately measuring the effectiveness of that strategy can be challenging. Many of the benefits of SEO, such as increased brand visibility, are qualitative and therefore hard to measure, and even objective metrics like inbound traffic can be subject to random variation and become difficult to interpret.

After you’ve maintained an SEO strategy for more than a few months, however, you should have enough information to form meaningful conclusions from your data. Most importantly, you’ll be able to check in regularly to see if there are any red flags that signal something is wrong with your campaign. These red flags can be hard to spot initially, but if you know what to look for, you should have no problem detecting them and taking corrective action immediately.

1. A Sharp Drop in Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is a metric referring to the number of people who found your site through search engines, and it’s one of the best metrics we have to measure the effectiveness of an SEO campaign. To measure your organic traffic, log into Google Analytics and click on "Acquisitions." Here, you’ll see a breakdown of how many visits your site received from organic sources, referrals, social media, and direct visits.

You can click into the organic visits to gain some extra details on the sources of your organic traffic, but the main number is the one we’re most concerned with. Keep an eye on it on a monthly — if not weekly — basis. While you should be seeing some long-term growth patterns, what you really want to look for is any sharp drop. For example, if you’re used to seeing 1,000 hits a week and that inexplicably drops to 200, you might have a major problem on your hands.

2. Stagnant Growth or Decline for More Than Two Months

Like I mentioned, the goal here is to see long-term growth. If you check back on a consistent basis, month after month, you should see an overall pattern toward increased traffic. That being said, organic search behavior is anything but predictable, and random factors beyond your or Google’s control could artificially leave you with a tough month or a brief stagnation. If you notice one month in particular doesn’t result in growth, don’t panic.

However, if your campaign remains stagnant for two months or more, you might have a serious problem. What you want to see is steady, measurable growth in organic visits — if you’re hovering around the same figures or if you start to see a decline, consider it a red flag. There are instances where multiple months of consistent traffic don’t necessarily mean your SEO campaign is failing, but you don’t want to take the gamble by keeping things the same for another month.

3. A Sharp Drop in Keyword Rankings

Keyword rankings aren’t nearly as important as they used to be. There was a time when keywords meant everything to SEO, and getting one to rank highly meant you had found success. Today,keywords are less pivotal; since Google deciphers user queries based on intent, rather than keyword phrases, your ranks are much more fluid. It’s far more important to have relevant, quality content than it is to have content based around certain keywords.

However, your rankings are still a valuable metric to measure because they can indicate the health of your campaign. Keep a handful of keywords as your targets to measure, and check your ranking on them every once in a while (once a month for most campaigns, or once a week for more aggressive campaigns). If you notice your rankings falling on a majority of those keywords, this is a red flag for your campaign.

Tracking Down the Culprit

Let’s imagine that you’ve found one of these red flags. What does that mean for your campaign? It means something is off in your strategy, and it’s interfering with your ability to increase your search visibility. It can be difficult to track down the exact cause of this downturn, especially since it could be multiple factors working together, but it’s important to identify the source.

Over-Optimized Content

Are you writing your content with one or a handful of keywords at the forefront? Are you recycling content or using old topics just so you can push more content on your site? If so, you could be over-optimizing, which could be leading to lower ranks. Write fresh, original content on new topics on a regular basis instead.

Poor Link-Building Strategy

Bad link-building tactics are the most common culprit of poor SEO campaign performance. Google’s Penguin algorithm update was launched to penalize such schemes as buying links, building too many links, and building links on irrelevant or low-authority websites. Instead of participating in schemes to manipulate your way up the rankings, try to earn your links through publishing high-quality content and relationship building.

Bad or Missing Reviews

Today’s local search incorporates information from your business all over the Web. If your information is missing from important local directory sites (like Yelp or TripAdvisor), or if you seem to be getting lots of bad reviews, your ranks and search visibility could tank.

Missing Peripheral Elements

Neglecting another important tactic or platform in your SEO campaign can also lead to poor performance. For example, if you don’t use social media or if you aren’t incorporating guest blogging, your results could suffer.

Once you’ve discovered a red flag that your SEO campaign is in trouble, it’s important to take corrective action as soon as possible. Identifying the source is only the first step of the process; you’ll have to work for days or weeks to repair the damage left in the wake of your flawed strategy or one-time mistake. The best course of action is to maintain a solid, high-quality SEO strategy to begin with; as long as you’re adhering to Google’s best practices and working with user experience as your main priority, you shouldn’t ever expect to see one of these red flags.

We employ a variety of proven recommended techniques to increase your chance for top rankings.These include optimizing your website's page,content,and structure to drive traffic to your site for specific keyword research.Pixotri technology is a creative house developing quality web designs, E-Commerce solution. SEO services and Gaming development Contact us for your SEOrequirement.info@pixotritechnologies.com. Visit our website: www.pixotritechnologies.com

http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2399652/3-signs-your-seo-campaign-is-dying-and-how-to-fix-it

4 Great Tools for Making the Most of Local SEO for Your Business

Did you know 85 percent of consumers use the Internet to find local businesses? Yes, consumers are going local, making it more important than ever for you to increase your visibility amongst your local target audience.

Local SEO is key here. Leverage its potential to the hilt if you want local customers to come across your business. It’s imperative that you get your local SEO strategy absolutely right so that your business scores a consistently high rank on local search engine results pages (SERPs).

Related: 7 Creative Link-Building Techniques to Improve Your Website SEO

Local SEO is tough, and you need to get experts on board to come up with an effective campaign; you also need to use tools for staying on top of your local SEO strategy. These tools easily help you implement actions that are a part of your local SEO plan.

Let’s take a closer look at four such tools:

1. Synup

Wondering whether all that time spent claiming listings has been worth it? Whether all information is error free and your business profile on every site is accurate? Evaluating each listing manually will take a lot of time and effort. This is where Synup enters the picture. It helps you crawl, claim and fix listings.

It also offers you a single dashboard for tracking customer reviews so you can keep an eagle eye on what customers are saying about your brand. It’s important to remember that reviews and listings are criticallocal search ranking factors, so get them right. Synup helps you do that and more.

Related: Why SEO Is Much Easier Than You Think

2. Moz Local

Think SEO, think Moz. It’s no wonder that one of the best tools for local SEO comes from Moz’s stable. This tool makes the process of updating listings completely hassle free. Just share your location information andMoz Local will push this data to reputed online directories and top-tier data aggregators in the business.

Your business’s local listing is a mission critical element of your local SEO strategy and you can’t afford to go wrong with it. Moz Local is a handy tool that helps you take charge of your business listings.

3. Whitespark’s Local Citation Finder

In order to improve local search rankings, you need to build local citations. The problem is there are a huge number of citation sources available on the web, so how do you search for them and more importantly, how do you know which citation source is a good pick for your business?

Sounds like a tough task doesn’t it? Well, it is, but made simpler by theLocation Citation Finder. All you need to do is enter a key phrase and search for citation sources. It also helps you identify high-quality citation sources and conduct a competitive analysis of successful businesses in your niche and their citations. This tool makes very sure that you don’t take an incorrect step with your listings.

Related: 4 Tools to Help Optimize Your Company's Culture of Collaboration

4. BrightLocal’s Local Search Rank Checker

You need to constantly monitor your local SEO campaign and its efficacy. This is where the Local Search Rank Checker enters the picture. It gives you the low down on your organic and local rankings on search engines like Google, Google Local/Maps, Bing, Bing Local etc. You could even track search results for specific locations, if your objective is to rank for multiple locations. The whole idea behind using this tool is to ensure your campaign and its deliverables are on the right track.

If you find the results are not to your liking, initiate course correction immediately. With this tool, there is very little ambiguity (if any) as to whether a local SEO campaign is performing as per expectations.

These five tools are easy to use and help you maximize the potential of local SEO for your business. They also help you save a lot of time, which can be spent in further strengthening your brand across the online and offline space.

Pixotri technology is a creative house developing quality web designs, E-Commerce solution. SEO services and Gaming development

Visit our website:www.pixotritechnologies.com

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243777