Last Week in Search – Part 4
Last week in search Google+ continued to add impressive numbers to its user base and market share, Google added long awaited real-time traffic data to its Analytics service and we all learned the value of online reputation management thanks to the Gasp email blunder that became the Twitter top trending #GaspFail.
Google+ hits it’s stride as it goes open
Early in the week, Hitwise released a glowing report on Google+’s market share growth, reporting a 1269% increase since going open to the public just a few weeks ago. Mashable also checked in on Google+’s growth, reporting a 30% increase to its user base that now tallies in at over 43 million users. Google knows that to have any chance of competing with Facebook they’re going to need to stack on users as quickly as possible. Without the scaling issues that has plagued other social networks, Google’s solid infrastructure and fast growth rate are just what it needs to mature in the social space.
Google Analytics goes real-time
Later in the week Google announced a few new welcome additions to Google Analytics that brings the service into real-time. With a set of new reports designed to show what’s happening on your website as it happens, real-time analytics is a well overdue addition to the Google Analytics service that brings into focus the immediacy of social sharing to your analytics data. There’s some cool new features to play with so if you haven’t got access to real-time analytics data yet, check out Google’s Analytics blog here on how to get early access.
Managing your online reputation in SERPS
Early last week, the Stew Art Media offices were hit with a string of telemarketing calls from a company named Blue Ridge Telecom. After Jim had his fun with the them on the phone, we began researching their company and found they had a serious negative reputation issue online. In last weeks video, Jim took a look at how to combat a negative reputation through search channels in seven simple steps. Covering when to intervene in online reputation management, how to handle social reputation management and how to prepare yourself before any issues arise, last weeks video was timed perfectly for what would follow in the news over the next few days with Gasp.
The Gasp email fail
The day after the Gasp email leak we took a look at some of the lessons business owners can learn from the Gasp’s mistakes. First off, by deactivating their Facebook page in response to the overwhelming negative reaction, Gasp essentially neutered the only social channel they had to mount a response, severely hampering their online efforts to repair the spiraling situation. Gasp’s other big mistake was not even being present where the conversation was mostly taking place. Gasp had no presence on Twitter, and by the looks of it, any other social networking website, which is a big mistake when it comes to managing online reputation issues. Gasp still have a while to go before the storm subsides, but when it does, they’ll still be left with the clean up bill on their search engine results. Make sure your business is ready for a worst case scenario with last weeks video and find out what went wrong and how your business can learn from Gasp’s email fail.
Keeping your finger on your industry’s pulse
Just like in any other industry, the news wheel moves fast in SEO. Finding it a little hard to stay up to date in your own industry? Take a look at our how-to guide that explains our process for staying up to date with all the news you could ever want. We cover how to build out a respectable list of sources, how to have content sent to you with RSS, how to use social networks for content discovery, why you need an iPad, how to not get bogged down with all your reading and why you’ll never need to read a newspaper again with our methods. Did you give any of our suggestions a try? Let us know how they’re working!
We have some cool stuff coming up this week on the blog so keep an eye out on Twitter @StewArtMedia or on our Facebook page.
Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.
