Google published a post today on the official Google Search Blog as part of a new monthly series that outlines monthly algorithm updates. I am a big fan of this! Nice to see Google being a bit more transparent with their algorithm changes.

So up for this month are the following:

• Rare keywords will be included when you type in search query. Previously rare keywords were often dropped and a more general result was provided. So be descriptive in your <title> tags. This is great news for long tail searches. As a searcher, you might not need to refine your searches as much (aka not necessary to dumb down your language to more common terminology).
• Better chance for long-tail documents to rank for relevant queries. Google is using more comprehensive indexing so long-tail documents rank better. (Once again, helping searches find what they need the first time they type in a query.)
• Parked domains get the boot from the SERPs. This is great news. No more clicking on a exact match URL that only leads you to a parked landing page. Nobody likes that.
• More autocomplete predictions.  Google is basically trying to become better at predicting the intentions behind your query. For example: Are you looking for information? Products to buy? Google will try to predict your intentions and provide better autocomplete suggestions. (Next up: Mind reading from Google! Kidding.)
• Fresher blog search results. Google continues to work on it’s fresh factor to provide you with new and relevant blog posts. This means you’ll see less blog posts from 2001 that are old news (unless nothing better has been written, of course).
• New signals to help better predict original content. Another stab at trying to take out scraper sites from the SERPs.
• Major League Soccer and CFL  fans can now see their favorite team’s scores and schedules right in the search results.
• More freshness for images. Fresh is the word on the streets for 2011 as changes are made to help fresh images show for queries relevant to news stories.
• Better layout on tablets. Some minor code changes so the SERPs look better on your iPad (or other tablet of choice).
• Less results from the same site for any given unbranded query. This helps ensure that one site doesn’t take over the SERPs. (It’s only fair, plus I’m sure searchers prefer variation.)

I look forward to seeing what’s new in January 2012!

• Americans conduct 22.7 billion searches a month. (comScore.com, June 2009)
• Worldwide people search 131 billion times a month. (Which works out to 29 billion searches a minute.) (comScore 2010)

Search can let your potential customers tell you what they are looking for. Instead of telling customers what products they should use and why; we can listen, learn and research to find out what your target audience is looking for and deliver what they need. This can be useful for new product development and insights, or, for improving current or existing products.

Excerpt from Vanessa Fox’s book Marketing in the Age of Google:

Historically, consumer data and industry trends haven’t been that easy to come by. Before launching a new product or feature, companies had to rely on expensive and time-consuming surveys and focus groups, and it often took awhile to gather enough feedback from these sources. Competitive and industry research was slow and expensive. But the abundance of search data has allowed all of that to change dramatically. We can see exactly what our customers want at a much larger scale than focus groups could ever provide, and competitive and industry data is just a click or two away. We can get immediate feedback about whether changes are working and see trends of consumer interest rising or falling before we invest in R & D.

If we combine searcher behaviour with what people are searching for (using keyword research) with why people are searching (using qualifiers like safe, reliable etc.) we can understand an audience better. We can also use tools like social listening to help us to understand the wants, needs, desires and language of potential customers.

We can also use keyword research and linguistics analysis to determine what keywords are the most popular based on search volume and what keywords have the most competitors. This helps to prioritize features and content on your website. It can also help to use the language your potential customers use. For example, people search for “mens shirts” and not “mens tops”. In this example it is better to use “men’s shirts” in your navigation over “men’s tops”. Listen, learn, research, repeat. There are a lot of insights just waiting to be discovered.

Without going through and explaining it from a technical viewpoint, from a very simple (and frightening) point-of-view people can easily log into unsecure profiles (like Facebook) simply by downloading this plugin.

I am not sharing this link with people so that they can spy on others, but so that people can be aware that this type of program exists. Be careful!

UPDATE: My friend Gary just shared with me this article on How to Block Firesheep Using BlackSheep.

This actually isn’t really a new post, it’s more of a quick 10-minutes update. I have been working at Blast Radius in Vancouver since June 28, 2010 and I thought I would share the news.

It’s been crazy having my life turned upside, but I am facing the challenge head on. I adore everything about my life in Kelowna. I love my little house, my perfect location my beyond amazing friends, and the little perks that small town living brings with it. Now I find myself thrust back into big city life (I know, it’s not THAT big here, but compared to Kelowna it is). I am extremely grateful for this incredible opportunity that has fallen on my lap, so I have no regrets. But there is still a period of adjustment.

This weekend my boyfriend Brandon and the cats are finally moving into our new place August 1st. I am extremely grateful for my friend Scott putting up me for the whole entire month (Scott you RULE). At the same time, I can not wait to have a place I call home again. I miss coming home and singing stupid songs at the top of my lungs. Not that Scott would mind that, I am kind of shy (even though it’s hard to tell sometimes).

On a totally random note, I have seen some elitist English majors spout crap about blogs not being real English, and that always irks me. Blogs might not be the things that Hemingways are made of, but they sure do provide us normal folk with a way to communicate our thoughts without an English degree (crazy, I know).

Until next time my lovelies …

Photo courtesy of Rosie Hardy on Flickr

Unfortunately this is not a healthy habit.

I wonder how many other people are like this? I imagine this is normal behavior for the most part.

My goal is to retrain my brain into associating happy and relaxed with productivity. I am a little apprehensive about how I am going to do this. I’ve been equating stress with productivity since the first time in high school I downed a pot of coffee and wrote a killer report (that I got 100% on). I was hooked from the get-go.

I like this post: Happiness is the Best Productivity Tool

It gives 10 reasons why happiness is awesome for getting work done:

Happy people work better with others
Happy people are more creative
Happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them
Happy people have more energy
Happy people are more optimistic
Happy people are way more motivated
Happy people get sick less often
Happy people learn faster
Happy people worry less about making mistakes – and consequently make fewer mistakes
Happy people make better decisions

Photo courtesy of Ashlee Chae on Flickr

Not to insinuate that I walk around all grumpy all of the time! Not true. I tend to put myself into stressful situations on purpose sometimes just to get work done (i.e. procrastination).

Anyone else out there finding themselves doing the same thing?

I come from a traditional advertising background where I used Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. That’s it. I can shamefully admit that I had no idea how to even cut and paste in a doc back then. Sounds ridiculous hey? Sad but true.

My previous job provided me with the opportunity to enter the world of online marketing. Now my eyes are wide open. Since then, I’ve been slowly learning how to do a bit of code. I am attempting to go beyond 301 redirects, and other basic HTML stuff (e.g. H1s, links, images, etc). I had web devs at my last job to do everything for me. Now that I am on my own I am trying to figure it all out. It’s not rocket science. Just time.

This brings me to point of this post.

Smirk All You Want

Yes my site is a Thesis template with zero changes. I started to play around with the site two days ago and still have no idea how to change the rotating images that are on the front page here. I also can’t figure out how I messed up my page titles, all I know is that there is an excess of words I can’t figure out how to remove. Yup. I know jack squat and I am not afraid to admit it.

My intention is to figure all of this out. In the meantime, please be nice and don’t think I’m a total idiot for not customizing my Thesis theme. I am aware that this is what needs to be done, I just need to figure out how to do it still.

I have a kickass brain for all things marketing/creative and a somewhat challenged brain for all things technical. I will conquer. Just give me a little time. Thank you for being understanding.

I’ve been getting myself motivated to write more (finally). I have a bunch of ideas for articles on the horizon.

And in case you’re wondering, this is the same Steph Woods as found on my other Steph Woods SEO blog. Which reminds me, apparently there is another Stephanie Wood (no ‘s’ on the end) that is giving me a bad rep in the SEO world. If you come across a Stephanie Wood – with no ‘s’ on the end – and they are doing something (a) shady, or (b) unethical it’s not me.

I’ll also be doing a bi-weekly SEO 101 series on SEO Scoop. Originally I was going to use that material for this site, but SEO Scoop already has an average of 20,000 readers a month. Figured I might as well start there and use those posts to link back here to this site. Makes sense from an increased online visibility point-of-view. This means I need to add more content and a little customization to my poor ol’ neglected blog here ASAP!

Presenting my first post on SEO Scoop: Learn SEO: Maximize Your Time with Google’s Spiders

Delicious treats on the horizon

Come again soon!