THE blog for Women over 45! Our Giveaways are always over $50! We let younger people be our friends too!

Category: google

Google+ Brand Entity Pages reported to arrive in Two Weeks. Apply here!

[ 0 ] July 7, 2011 | Shelley Zurek

AdAge Digital is reporting that Google+ Brand Entity Pages are Just Two Weeks Away

In an article dated, July 7, 2011, Edmund Lee is reporting that Google+ Pages for Businesses entities (that includes BLOGS) should happen within two weeks. Well, I’ll believe it when I see it, but still why not fill out the form and apply? I did and you should too!

Here’s the link they provided in the article for signing up for

Google+ Entity Profile Application

Here’s what it says on the application!

Fill out this form to apply for consideration in our program allowing a limited number of businesses to use Google+. We will be using this small experiment to see the effect of including brands in the Google+ experience. Filling out this form does not guarantee you a spot in the program. These test profiles will be retired when we launch our business product.

Will you apply For Google+ Business entity Pages? Why or Why not?

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Google Changes It’s Algorithm, Good News for Bloggers with Great Original Content

[ 35 ] March 20, 2011 | Shelley Zurek

This just in from Google Late Last Month, Let the Celebration Continue!

Google states directly in their Official Blog, that they feel “it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does” Further…

Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on. This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.

So what does that mean to Bloggers? Especially Niche bloggers, fashion bloggers, mom bloggers, review bloggers, etc? Our blogs just got a lot more desirable to Marketing Departments, PR firms, and Big Business. All those spammy links that you get and people who steal and copy your articles, and sites like Squiddo, HubPages, Ezine Articles, GoArticles are moving into Google Smack Down Mode. High Quality Content is NOW King according to Google’s new alogrithm.

So get out there and create high quality content that incorporates your key words and embraces your markets. You just might find yourself with a higher Google placement in their search engine at least and maybe…a higher Google Page Rank. Whoppee! Women over 45, Fashionistas, Giveaway Queens have never had it so good!

Mark Thompson over at Stay on Search has this to say about the new Google Algorithm :

Personally from reading the official Google algorithm update release and monitoring a number of my blogs, I think that Google really has shifted their algorithm to reward the websites that are making an effort to providing unique, valuable content on a REGULAR basis.

MaAnna Stephenson, author of Blogaid, a blog that helps you make your blog better has this to say on the topic:

Article marketing lends itself well to evergreen content and I’d hate to see it disappear entirely. But, I also like the idea of Google clearing out the SEO cheaters and forcing article directories to only allow good content on their site.

The Chief Blonde says, It’s about time. I predict that the power of the Blogger has just begun!

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MOZRANK? WEBSITE GRADER? The New Alternative to Google PageRank?

[ 7 ] December 21, 2010 | Shelley Zurek

What’s a PR person to do?

Public Relations (PR) personnel have long relied on Google PageRank to decide which blogs to choose for featuring their products, selecting brand ambassadors, placing ads, etc. Now (as of this writing), Google Page Rank has not been updated since April 2010. (Sure as I write this article, they will update tomorrow). It’s really unfortunate for people like me and Simply Stacie. Both of us switched to WordPress in May (after the Google blogger fiasco in late Spring where a bunch of blogs just disappeared for no apparent reason), shortly after doing so, our page rank dropped or went to “Unrated” which is worse than zero! (mine from Pagerank 2 to Pagerank 1 and Simply Stacie’s went from 3 to Unrated!) The really sad thing is that Simply Stacie is a HUGE megablogger with a monster following on Facebook, twitter, and GFC. She is super professional and certainly deserves her status (and a great Pagerank). This blog, Still Blonde after all these YEARS, has grown significantly during this time as well, multiplying our Google Friend connect by 5, Facebook by 4, twitter is up to 550, and our page visits and visitors has escalated markedly as well.

So What?

So What? Well for Simply Stacie and myself and others like us, the lack of Google Pagerank update has hugely impacted our ability to generate income from our blogs as Public Relations firms are sadly uneducated in measurement numbers. Most of them only know Google PageRank…that’s it. Google has not commented nor done anything since April 2010 on this metric. With this lack of updating, we are being crushed. Our only alternative, is to educate on the current relevant measures. Three very relevant measures I have found are mozRank, Website Grader, and Alexa. As noted by Simply Stacie in her recent article, Bye Bye Google Page Rank, Hello mozRank :

Page Rank and mozRank are similar in that they both measure a websites popularity and authority online. mozRank is run by SEOMoz and measures sites on a scale of 1 to 10 (just like Google PR does).

Website Grader is actually an overall grade with commentary about what you can do to improve your site. It will also do a mega-indepth analysis at at cost (approx. $150). I have found the free recommendations to be extremely helpful. I display my Website Grader badge on my blog at all times (Why wouldn’t I? My grade currently stands at 98!) Website grader will tell you your mozRank as well when it takes a look at your overall site. So it’s like a two-fer! You can find out your mozRank on other sites as well such as Open Site Explorer and Website Analyzer.
You will find that your mozRank can slightly vary among these sites.

Alexa is another site I use to compare my blog with others (I find Compete to be very unreliable). Alexa ranks your blog among the top websites in the world and US. Supposedly, if you can break 500,000 in the world, Public Relation firms will start to take notice (the lower your number the better). If you put the Alexa code into your blog and claim your blogsite, it supposedly helps out your score (I have yet to figure this one out…).

So get these numbers out there. Post mozRank, Website Grader, and Alexa on your blog, take every opportunity to explain to Public Relations people about the “current” irrelevance of Google Page Rank (now if Google updates–that changes the whole ballgame, doesn’t it?) Here is how I post mine on my Contact Us/PR/Ads Page:

Our Current Stats (December, 2010):

Website is 14 months old

Page visits–15,000/month and growing

Website grader–98/100

MOZ Rating–4

Entries per giveaway — Small giveaways (400-700), Large giveaways (800-2000). That’s a huge quantity of visits to your website because all of our giveaways are interactive with your website. 0ur entry process requires viewers to visit your website, friend you on Facebook Etc. Here’s an example giveaway from Lifetime Brands http://stillblondeafteralltheseyears.com/2010/10/140-kitchenaid-lifetime-brands-giveaway-cook-for-the-cure-kitchen-tools/

Facebook fans: 845

Feedburner/Rss:870

Twitter: 590

Google Friends Connect: 1180

Email newsletter (for giveaways only):1100+

Alexa Rank: 76,000 (US) 340,000 (World) (a lower number is better, we are in the top 1.07% of all websites worldwide)
Google Page Rank: Please note Google has not updated their Page Rank since April. Page Rank is NOT a relevant measure for a blog unless Google updates on a regular basis!

Please be advised: We are a super fast growing blog.

Take the time to Check out Simple Stacie blog post on this topic!

Tell me how you are addressing this problem if you are a blogger?

UPDATE: GOOGLE DID UPDATE MY PAGERANK ON Jan. 20, 2011 from a 2 to a 3! See article here for more on that:

Google PageRank has Updated (for Some) January 20, 2011! First Google PageRank Update for 2011

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Google E-books–Read Online books Anywhere, Anytime, on Any Device (except Kindle! HAHA)

[ 2 ] December 8, 2010 | Shelley Zurek

Google E-books has launched.

Goggle E-books, the Amazon Kindle Killer has been released and it appears it will be a new revenue stream for Google as well! Google E-books, formerly called Google Editions, will enable users to buy books through books.google.com/ebooks. You can read the Google e-book on a variety of devices, well almost every device except a Kindle. Hmmm? Trying to squash competition are we? Amazon currently holds 72% of the digital book sales according to projections by Credit Suisse Group.

Amazon approach has always been proprietary–You buy our reader, you buy our books. Google’s approach– is You buy our books, You can read them anywhere on anything (well, except a Kindle) Watch the video below. It clearly explains the whole process.

As well, it appears that bloggers will have the opportunity to make money off the whole new venture! How? As reported in the WSJ:

Bloggers and others who wish to direct their visitors to Google’s digital titles could earn a commission through an affiliate program. … the (commission) rates will be competitive.

Google’s ebookstore opened on Monday with 3 million titles available with connections with most of the major book publishers–so it will have your favorite authors and bestsellers. Prices between Amazon and Google appear to be very similar. Google offers 2.8 million FREE public domain books as opposed to Amazon’s 1.8 million. Amazon and Apple are expected to make countermoves to make their titles available to any device. Amazon has already made significant moves as is reported by the International Business Times Manikandan Raman. No matter what the final outcome, Women over 45 and all consumers will be the beneficiary. Gotta love America and free competition. It just makes my little blonde heart go pitter-pat!