An article posted at Search Engine Land by Muhammad Saleem, one of Digg’s top users, sheds some light on what it takes to get submitted content in Digg promoted to the site’s homepage. Surprisingly, there is an algorithm in place that takes several factors into account, only one of which is the number of Diggs (positive votes) a submission receives. This is mostly speculation based on his experiences, as the exact algorithm is not publicly available.
A key element for success in Digg is to ensure that other Digg users approve of the content submitted, but who those users are makes a huge difference. Some users, based on their level of activity, are considered more important than others. Diggs from these users will generally add to the likelihood of the submission being promoted to the homepage.
However, receiving Diggs from these users is not enough. A minimum number of Diggs still needs to be received in order for the submission to be declared popular. This number is based on the amount of activity on the site in general and within the particular category where the submitted content was added. More activity on the site during the time the content was added means more Diggs will be needed.
The frequency at which Diggs are received is important; the same number of Diggs obtained over an hour vs. 12 hours is relevant.
In addition to voting for a submission, content can also be “buried,” or voted down. “Buries” apparently carry more weight than Diggs, so more Diggs would be required to overcome this hurdle.
Each submission to Digg also features a comments section where feedback on the submitted content can be added. More activity in the comments section can allow a submission to get that last push for promotion to the homepage.
Keep these key elements in mind the next time you attempt to add content to Digg. Maybe you’ll show up on the homepage and reap the benefits of site traffic as a result.
Article by Paul McDevitt
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This week, in our continued review of the MarketingSherpa Search Benchmark Guide, we cover Chapter 2 – Topics in Search. This chapter provides a wealth of information that is best broken down over the next few weeks…I’m trying to stretch this out as long as possible.
The first is an SMTrends Feature Article on Eyetracking and Heatmaps. We have also added highlights on the various other sections within Chapter 2 – the timeliest and most relevant being How We Search and Shop.
There was a good amount of Shopping information provided, starting with the top 100 product/retail-oriented search terms from June 2007. Many of the queries revolved around wireless searches and store names. Shoppers are using search navigationally, using terms such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Costco. To that end, shoppers still do not seem to embrace being more direct with search engines in terms of query length. 49% of shoppers use one to two-word queries – which makes sense if they are looking for a store. 35% of shoppers use three to four-word queries, likely looking for a specific product.
The online influence on offline purchases is starting to come to light, with 81% of consumers saying that they researched products online. There is a significant case to be made for using Search instead of brand advertising, as 52% of shoppers say they use Search Engines to provide a way for them to find new retailers.
Shopping engines received mixed results, with the majority of search agencies citing “medium ROI” when looking at nine shopping engines. Much of this is attributed to not really testing the nuances of each engine but instead creating one feed for all of the engines. When looking at the electronics category, 50% of shoppers used a Search Engine when researching a product, and 25% using a shopping engine.
Since this data was collected in June 2007 and not during the holiday season, it is a signal that any retail or product client needs to stay on top of their search campaigns.
Article by Joshua Palau
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SEO Analyst, Christopher Phillips breaks down how Google constructs a website listing in a 2-part article. Google’s Webmaster Central recently released a video where Matt Cutts dissects a search engine listing. In the video, Matt explains how Google determines what information to display. Matt goes through each piece of a web listing and explains how Google tries to pull the most relevant information. Below is a breakdown of each part of a website listing and its function:
Title – Pulled from the title tag in the code on the actual webpage
Snippet – Pulled from the homepage META description, other relevant content on the page, or from a listing on the open directory project
Plus Box – Provides additional information when clicked, such as a map showing a businesses location, or current stock information
Cached – A link that provides a way to check the last time Google crawled a page
Similar Pages – A link that includes similar businesses the listing is related to
Note This – A link that gives the user the ability to save the listing for later use in Google Notebook
Site Links – Additional links to main subsections of a website, which are generated automatically by Google’s algorithm
More Results – Shows more results from the same domain as the current listing
URL – The actual URL of the site listing, followed by the page file size
Bolding – Words in the search listing that match a user’s query will be bolded
Article by Chris Phillips
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