Google SEO Report Card Scores Company’s Own SEO Efforts

Google is looking to improve upon its own internal SEO efforts. The company has created what it calls an "SEO Report Card," designed to improve the user experience and visibility of some of its own properties. The company says it aims to identify potential areas for improvement in Google's product pages, which could help users find them more easily in search engines, and fix bugs that annoy visitors and hurt the pages' performance in search engines.

Google is making this report card publicly available though, and that means other businesses and webmasters can study it themselves, and use what they learn to improve their own sites. It may come as a surprise to some, but Google appears to have a great deal of improvement to do when it comes to search engine optimization, the irony of course coming from the fact that Google operates the world's most dominant search engine.

"Simple steps such as fixing 404s and broken links, simplifying URL choice, and providing easier-to-understand titles and snippets for our pages can benefit both users and search engines," says Google's Search Quality team. "From the start of the project we also wanted to release the report card publicly so other companies and webmasters could learn from the report, which is filled with dozens of examples taken straight from our products' pages."

Here's a quick look at their scoring:

The whole document is about 50 pages (though much of that is graphical), and is available to download in PDF format. Google began by reviewing the main pages of 100 of its different products across a number of common SEO topics, and says it will go deeper into the sites in future versions of the report card.

What do you think about Google's SEO scores? Do you find the information within the report card helpful?

Facebook Nabs #1 Honors For Site Visits On Christmas Day

While most of us in the Internet marketing “industry” were all aghast at the Facebook privacy problem of ’09, the rest of the world could have cared less. You know those people, right? The ones who don’t live and breathe this stuff to the point that all perspective is lost? These are the ‘everyday’ Facebook users who don’t give a rip about Mark Zuckerberg and the continued search for 7,000 people who care enough to impact any policy changes with the social media giant.

So those regular folks pushed Facebook to a point where it had never been before: the number one site during the Christmas holiday. ReadWriteWeb tells us

Christmas is a holiday that brings people together, so perhaps it should be no surprise that Facebook has become a part of millions of peoples’ Christmas experiences. For the first time in its history, Facebook was the #1 most visited website in the United States on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year, according to traffic analyst firm Hitwise today.

Makes sense doesn’t it? Personally I was more prone to using Skype rather than updating everyone but that is certainly a personal preference.

So while the site finished third for the year behind Google and Yahoo Mail it was certainly a milestone to be seen as the Christmas site of choice. Last year Facebook finished second in this contest to Google but was able to flip positions this year.

See what a year of gigantic growth can do for you? Wonder if Santa will be as nice to Facebook next year after the rest of the world catches on that their “goings on” at Facebook aren’t as private as they used to be?

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Google Adds Way to Easily Merge Duplicate Contacts in Gmail

Google has added a feature to Gmail, which allows users to merge all of their duplicate contacts into one. Until now, users have had to go through contacts one-by-one in order to clean up their list.

"Managing a big address book can be a challenge, so it's no surprise that the top request for Google contacts is a fast, easy way to merge duplicate contacts," says software engineer for Gmail, Dominik Marcinski.

The feature comes as a button in the contact manager that says "find duplicates". You can review the merge suggestions and uncheck any of Google's suggestions that you don't actually want merged. Then, just hit the merge button, and you're all set.

"If you've been considering getting all your contacts into Gmail or syncing your Gmail contacts to your phone, now's the time to do it," says Marcinski.

Gmail contacts can be synced among a variety of devices, including those which run on Android, iPhones, BlackBerry, and SyncML. "So if you were dreading spending hours getting your contacts in order, now you can do it with a couple clicks," Marcinski adds.

Have You Read This?

> Gmail Aims to Save Embarrassment Yet Again

> Gmail Gets a New Label Feature

> Google Adds Google Docs Previews to Gmail

Walmart Wins Thanksgiving, Amazon Wins Black Friday

You may have read about the online price wars going on this holiday season between Walmart and Amazon. It looks like both companies are doing quite well as a result (not that that is much of a surprise). According to data from Experian Hitwise, Walmart was the top retail site on Thanksgiving Day, and Amazon was the top retail site on Black Friday.

Where did you spend your dollars on Thanksgiving/Black Friday? Share here.

According to Experian Hitwise, among the top 500 Retail Web sites, the percentage of U.S. visits were down 15% on Thanksgiving Day in 2009 compared to Thanksgiving Day 2008, and the U.S. traffic to Black Friday sites on Thanksgiving Day was down 4% compared to 2008.

On Thanksgiving Day, Walmart received 15% of U.S. visits among the top 500 Retail Web sites. This is the fifth year in a row that Walmart was the top visited site on Thanksgiving Day.

Experian Hitwise also shares the following Thanksgiving Day stats:

- Amazon.com was the second most visited with 12.41% of visits followed by BestBuy.com with 6.22%. Target.com was the fourth most visited with 5.63% followed by Sears with 3.78%. (Attached are the top 20 sites for Thanksgiving Day 2009).

- Among the top 20 sites visited on Thanksgiving Day 2009, Old Navy saw the largest increase in visits compared to 2008 with a 59% increase, Amazon saw a 30% increase YoY and Target saw a 28% increase. Walmart had a 9% increase and the Apple Store site saw an 8% increase.

- Walmart was the top site to receive traffic from Black Friday sites on Thanksgiving Day 2009 with an 11% increase in traffic compared to 2008. Best Buy and Target received the second and third most traffic from Black Friday sites. Facebook received the largest increase in visits YoY with a 671%.

- According to Akamai, global retail traffic peaked on the U.S. Thanksgiving Day (11/26/09) at 5,732,966 visitors per minute at around 2pm EST.  On the same day, North America traffic peaked at 4,095,242 visitors per minute at around 10pm EST.

So that was Thanksgiving. Then there was Black Friday. Out of the top 500 Retail sites, the percentage of U.S. visits were up 4% versus Thanksgiving Day. Year-over-year the visits were down 9% compared to Black Friday 2008, according to Experian Hitwise. The U.S. traffic to Black Friday sites on  Black Friday was up 9% compared to 2008.

Experian Hitwise shared these additional stats about Black Friday:

- The top visited Retail Website on Black Friday 2009 was Amazon receiving  13.55 % of U.S. visits among the top 500 Retail Web sites. This is the second year in a row that  Amazon was the top visited site on Black Friday.

- Walmart was the second most visited with 11.18 % of visits followed by Target.com with 5.65%, BestBuy.com with 4.62%. followed by Sears with 2.95%. (Attached are the top 20 sites for Black Friday 2009).

- Among the top 20 sites visited on Black Friday 2009, The Apple Store saw the largest increase in visits compared to Thanksgiving day 2009 with a 110% increase,  Staples  saw a 47% increase YoY and Dell saw a 40% increase. Amazon had a 9% increase.

- Walmart was the top site to receive traffic from Black Friday sites on Black Friday 2009 with a 32% increase in traffic compared to 2008. BestBuy and Target received the second and third most traffic from Black Friday sites. Among the top 10 sites to receive traffic from Black Friday sites on Black Friday, Target  received the largest increase in visits YoY with 110%. 

Another research firm, comScore, has provided its own Black Friday stats. They also have Amazon on top, with Walmart in second place. Here's a look at a couple of their charts:

"Black Friday, better known as a shopping bonanza in brick-and-mortar retail stores, is increasingly becoming one of the landmark days in the online holiday shopping world," says comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. "The $595 million in online spending this Black Friday represents the second heaviest online spending day of the season-to-date and a double-digit increase from last year. While this acceleration in spending suggests the online holiday season may be shaping up slightly more optimistically than anticipated, it may also reflect the heavy discounting and creative promotions being put forth by retailers that now encompass the use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Cyber Monday – the traditional kick-off to the online holiday shopping season – and the subsequent weeks will be the real test for how online retailers fare this season. That said, this is a very encouraging start."

"Much attention has focused on Amazon and Walmart this season, and both retailers performed particularly well online on Black Friday in terms of attracting visitors," adds Fulgoni. "We will be watching closely to see how these retailers perform during these next critical weeks of the season."

Everyone expects Amazon and Walmart to do well during the holidays season. It would really interesting to know how the smaller businesses are doing. Do you run a retail site? How have your holiday sales been thus far? What kinds of promotions have you run? Comment here.

Have You Read This?

> Amazon and Walmart Engage in Price War

> Is Cyber Monday Still A Factor In The Holiday Shopping Season?

> Black Friday 2009: The Best Deals On The Items You Want

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