Google updates and Alt tags for images – May
While the new analytics has some great new features some of the basic info has become frustrating to access.
Gone is the old left hand menu with all metrics that the average person could ever want. Google now forces the user to have a very in-depth knowledge of metric tracking and creation.
What’s this mean for you, well it probably means that the average Joe can’t find or make relevant data to gauge how well their site is doing.
Google seams to be moving analytics into a specialised field with paid subscriptions and the need for a design/developer to walk the website owners through their stats.
I found that my new “dashboard” had some crazy useless metrics like visitors by country. The first thing I did was delete all of this junk and made my own metrics. I am tracking things like goals, exits and bounces all filtered by traffic from google or adwords. As bad as all that sounds it has forced me to set up metrics that I deem to determine the success of sales. In the long run this will mean more specific clues for improvements to my marketing and website.
Latest Google SEO updates
There have been a heap of changes in google’s ranking algorithm lately. Mainly the incorporation of symbols like @, faster and fresher news results and alt tags.
Out of the 50 odd changes its really just the alt tags that will effect you, the average customer.
Alt tag is the description you give your images. So it’s a great idea to name your images something useful like a keyword or just describe what’s in the picture. Then in your cms you can also give it an alt tag for a better description. See below CMS tips on how to do this.
http://insidesearch.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/search-quality-highlights-50-changes.html
Google Shut Down 800,000 Advertisers & 130 Million Ads
Google is doing some great work on clamping down on all the spammy ADs. It’s a pity that they can’t do this for spam emails.
- They have been checking landing pages for spammy words like viagra and so on.
- Real person reviews of Ads are coming into effect.
- Real person flagging an Ad as spam as well.
Questions and Answers
Q: How do I add an Alt tag to my images?
A: If you have SEO in place dont mess with the home page images, but on all your sub pages its good practice to add these tags. To do so click or add an image, then click the little tree icon in the text editor of your CMS. When this image editor window pops up simply enter a describtion in the “Image description” box. Something descriptive or a keyword – but dont over do the keywords.