Last week’s article, “How Google Constructs Website Listings - Part 1,” explained how Google pulls information and populates their search listings. This week’s article gives tips on how to optimize a website’s listing in Google’s search results.

The snippet can be pulled from many sources, but using the META NOODP tag is a way to force Google to use the META description or content from a website instead of pulling information from the Open Directory Project.

To get bolded words in a Google listing, it is important to include targeted keywords in the title and META description tags of your website. Each page should have a unique title and META tag, written to entice users to click on the link. In this video, Matt Cutts suggests experimenting with different META descriptions to see what will drive more traffic to a website.

The cached link is useful to determine how often Google visits a website. Typically Google will visit websites it likes more frequency than those that it does not like. If Google has not visited a website in over a month, it may be time to add more content or rethink current SEO strategies.

Site links may be generated automatically, but there is some level of control over which site links appear. Google’s Webmaster Tools provide a way to view and remove undesired site links.

The plus box can be helpful for many types of businesses, especially those that provide services in a specific local area. Adding a listing to Google’s local business center will include the business in Google maps and may help increase the chances of Google associating it with the correct physical address for the plus box.

Article by Chris Phillips 

There has been a lot of talk recently around search personalization and the tracking of users’ search history.  Many are interested in the allure of having their search results more personalized based on their history because it will provide a more satisfying search experience.  If a user has performed multiple car searches over a 30-day span, it would be a better experience if when they typed in “Sync,” the search engine returned results on Ford Sync and other car products related to Sync.  On the other side of the argument are privacy advocates that are concerned with how the search engines will manage this data.  

In a proactive measure against this, Ask.com launched AskEraser, a new product that aims to give Internet users more control over their search activity data when they search online. When AskEraser is enabled, all Ask.com cookies will be deleted from your browser.  On subsequent visits, a user’s search activity will be deleted from Ask.com servers. AskEraser will remain "on" across multiple visits to the Ask.com site provided that you do not clear your Ask.com cookies, and that you're using the same computer/browser. The activity erased includes search queries, associated cookie information, IP address, User ID, and Session ID.

The link for AskEraser can be found at the upper right-hand corner of the Ask.com homepage.  As a reminder when AskEraser is enabled, a user will see an indicator at the top of the site. AskEraser will remain on for 24 months and can be turned off at any time.

The use of AskEraser will likely enhance Ask.com’s reputation and make the search engine a destination of choice for users who seek a greater sense of privacy. AskEraser is currently available on Ask.com’s US and UK sites. The company plans to globally launch the feature in 2008.

Article by Brian Wensel 

Recently, Google has made some naming changes to their targeting capabilities on the display and contextual network. What was once defined as "Site Targeting" is now being replaced with "Placement Targeting." This enhancement describes targeting on websites, in-video placements, game placements, text links, and more. Placement Targeting allows the advertiser to get more granular by choosing to run in a particular placement on a website within Google’s network.

Google has also redefined the Vertical Targeting offering as Category Targeting. The feeling is that this is more of an industry-standard term that better describes how this offering works. Let’s say a pharmaceutical company knows that their asthma sufferers are males who partake in outdoor activities. Category Targeting would allow them to target more broadly into lifestyle categories such as golf, mountain climbing, etc. Google also changed "Vertical Exclusion" to "Category Exclusion," which allows the advertiser to continue excluding topics, page types, and media types.

In addition to redefining these offerings, Google has also changed the pricing model, which is likely of greatest interest to advertisers. While they used to link pricing to particular types of targeting, that model is being phased out and both CPC and CPM pricing are available for keyword, contextual placement, and category targeting.

Finally, in what seems like an effort to provide a competitive offering to high quality ad networks, such as Microsoft’s DrivePM, Google is in the process of rolling out the Google Select Network (currently in limited beta phase). Google Select is exactly what it sounds like - a network of high quality sites that can be contextually targeted. Google is able to guarantee quality because each site is manually reviewed by a team of people before being accepted into the network. There are currently 1,200 total sites in the network, comprising 250MM daily pageviews and 93MM monthly uniques, which translates to over 50% of Internet users. The Select network is essentially a subset of the Content network. Therefore, pricing is based on CPC, a variety of ad formats are accepted, and the site exclusion tool may be used.

The evolution of these offerings and the enhancements that Google has made are targeted to advertisers. Google continues to offer a variety of options for advertisers that are looking to increase their exposure and maintain cost efficiency. While some of these changes may sound cosmetic, it is important to discuss these changes with your search manager in order to understand how to best incorporate them into campaigns.

Article by Krista Gaedtke 

In keeping with the tradition of year-end “top something” lists, Evan Carmichael has published a look at the Top 50 SEO Happenings of 2007.

Google announced on Friday two updates to their News algorithm. The updates are related to adding updates to a new story as well as adding prioritization based on a user’s geography. These are part of Google’s continued effort to provide the most relevant news first.

We all know Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon, but there are a whole lotta other Social Bookmarking Sites that need to be considered.