My Five: Five things worth sharing from the last week (or so), brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Ali.
1. A good week for Google Webmaster Tools users
First up, Google is set to extend search queries data to one year for all.
AdWords users (i.e. those that spend money with Google) are currently able to access a full year of top search queries using Webmaster Tools. However, if you don’t have an Adwords account and are not lining the pockets of the search engine, then you will have been limited to 90 days worth of keyword data.
The debate about whether Google withholds information in order to coerce organisations to spend money, continues to rage but the good news, first reported by Search Engine Land, is that year long data will soon be available to everyone with a Webmaster Tools account.
Secondly, Google is now providing users with a fuller picture of their backlink profile through the ‘Download more sample links’ button within GWMT. Until now this feature has provided limited information for users, making it difficult for them to analyse backlink data.
Google claims that the new and improved backlink data will provide “a much broader, more diverse cross-section of links. Site owners looking for insights into who recommends their content will now have a better overview of those links, and those working on cleaning up any bad linking practices will find it easier to see where to spend their time and effort.”
2. Google Alerts are back!
Actually Google Alerts didn’t really go anywhere but they haven’t been particularly user friendly for a couple of months as Google killed off its RSS Feed – Google Reader. The upshot of that was that we had no choice but to receive all alerts in to our inbox (deep joy!) However the search engine has just added a Feed delivery option back in to its Alerts service. Google Reader isn’t making a come back but at least you can now manually take the RSS link and add it to your existing Feed. I use Digg Reader as it’s got such a clean interface but that’s just me and it’s just launched an Android App (happy days) but I haven’t had chance to try it as yet.
How to:
- Set up your alerts and choose the delivery option as ‘Feed’.
- Next click on ‘Manage Alerts’.
- Click on the RSS icon for an alert you’ve set up.
- Copy the URL from the address bar. It should look something like this: http://www.google.com/alerts/feeds/1247180835412418416249120 (this isn’t a real feed so don’t try copying and pasting!)
- Paste the URL into your Reader of choice.
3. B2B social media
This blog post speaks for itself: 25 really good social media cover shots from companies that you wouldn’t expect to produce interesting visuals. Or as Hubspot put it: 25 ‘Boring’ Companies With Brilliant Social Media Cover Photos. And as you can see, also a lesson in the art of catchy headline writing.
4. And on that note…
Who doesn’t love a good piece of celebrity gossip and it seems more of us are turning to the Daily Mail for our daily hit. This Econsultancy post dissects the publisher’s well honed formula and explains why we keep coming back for more. It’s the world’s most read newspaper so they are obviously doing something right and there are definitely lessons to be learned.
5. Welcome back Daddy Matt…
We were delighted to welcome Matt Batterham back to work this week, after the birth of his beautiful baby daughter Marnie. From toddlers upwards, most children seem to litter every day conversations with Facebook, Twitter, DM, Google, iPad, App, download etc. and there is much discussion about what age to give children their first mobile phone. The next development is at what age, children should have their own social media accounts. It seems some parents want to claim their kids identity before anyone else has chance.
What do you think?
