SyCara, a developer of search engine optimization (SEO) tools for digital agencies and brand advertisers, announced its version 3.0 product release, providing a new streamlined and rich user interface for SEO customers with improved personalization features.

SyCara’s Version 3.0 release provides SEO agencies and enterprise SEO professionals with an improved user interface (UI) design and personalized navigation. SyCara’s easy-to-use UI and new information architecture will help streamline repetitive SEO tasks like reporting, site audits and on-page change management. In addition, the UI adds significant efficiencies in managing users and projects across multiple team members when needed.

Dan Boberg, CEO of SyCara, noted, “We’re excited about this major upgrade to SyCara’s user experience. We focused on creating an intuitive design that is simple yet powerful and flexible for our customers. At SyCara, we’re putting the data and expertise that SEO professionals need at their fingertips to enable both improvements in SEO efficiency and a higher return on SEO investment.”

SyCara’s Version 3.0 release also includes customized UI configuration and white label options, providing users with personalized preferences to simplify SEO reporting.

The SyCara SEO Platform was first released over two years ago when co-founder and SEO strategist Fionn Downhill saw that SEO professionals were being under-served by the current tools in the marketplace. “We built SyCara because we understood firsthand the struggles and frustrations that come with SEO management – the hassles, the lack of coordination, the disparate data sources,” Downhill stated. “SyCara integrates keyword rankings and research, analytics, integrated Google webmaster tools and linking tools, giving SEO professionals workflow management, monitoring and reporting tools in one application.”
Since its first release, SyCara has successfully integrated and released first-to-market localization and universal search features in its robust SEO platform.

About SyCara
SyCara has developed an innovative technology platform for search engine optimization (SEO) that caters to agencies and enterprise SEO customers. Designed by SEO experts, the SyCara platform automates SEO management tasks and delivers actionable insights to guide search marketing professionals. SyCara provides a single, customizable SEO platform to simply and effectively accomplish workflow management, SEO monitoring, reporting and project management. Using SyCara’s prioritized, actionable plans, SEO professionals are empowered to achieve a higher level of efficiency and ROI.

SyCara is based in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information about SyCara, go to http://www.sycara.com or call 855-479-2272.

The change to Google Analytics was related to how visitor sessions are seen as finished and a new session started. The change was meant to affect visitors arriving from one traffic source and then coming back on another, for example clicking organic and then clicking a PPC ad within 30 minutes used to be one session, it is now two sessions.

• Visitor numbers – these skyrocketed after the update but have returned to more normal when they fixed the bug on 8/17/2011 (see linked post above). The numbers now are slightly higher than they were previously due to changes in the way sessions are counted.
• Pages Viewed – this number is not affected by the number of visitor sessions and appears to have not been affected by the recent changes.
• Pages per visit – this number will be lower now due to visitor numbers going up but pages viewed not changing.
• Bounce rate – this would have gone up as now a single session can be seen as two sessions which can mean that a visitor clicking through from organic, then clicking a paid ad would be seen as one bounce and one return visitor.
• % new visitors – this would have gone down due to what was previously one new visitor session now being one new visitor session and one repeat visitor session.
• Average time on site – this would have lowered as where there was one session previously is now seen as two sessions.

Why Panda Matters?

Google has repeatedly stated that the goal of its algorithm is to improve the quality of search engine results for human users.  Since Panda’s release in April 2011, this new algorithm seems to have focused on removing spam sites that typically clutter SERPs. Early victims of Google Panda were content farms and large publishing networks with thousands of pages of content.  In fact, HubPages, a publisher website that relies heavily on Google search to obtain traffic, reported a 50% drop in traffic as a result of Panda.

Do You Have A Panda Problem?

To determine if your site has been affected by Panda, look at overall traffic this year.  Were there significant drops in Google traffic in late February/early March (April for non-US sites)? Did a slow decline begin at that time and continue to fall? Were there other drops every 30 to 40 days? If so, Panda might have, and can still be, negatively affecting your site.

How Do You Avoid Being Pandalized?

It is rumored that Panda v2.3 has already been released to help differentiate between higher and lower quality sites.  While there is no way to guarantee you will be unaffected by Panda, here are 12 steps you can take to prepare for future releases and reduce the impact of the new algorithm.

1. Lower ad to content ratio – research which ads make money on your site and remove those ads with little to no traffic.
2. Increase the amount of non-boilerplate text – if site content is below 400 words, increase it to reach 600 to 1000 words.
3. Increase the amount of non-text content on pages, such as images and videos.
4. If your site uses Google Analytics and you have affiliate links, then ensure outbound click is tagged so Google Analytics doesn’t think your site has a high bounce rate.
5. Improve internal site linking by adding breadcrumbs and related article features to improve visitor time on site.
6. Revisit and fix any page with a 95% bounce rate or higher before it gets Panadalized.
7. Add social media buttons to all pages, including Facebook, Google +, and Twitter.
8. Use subdomains to split blogs, products, and company information pages.
9. Remove any penalized content from your site.
10. Ensure your site is claimed in Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) and check there for anything that might hint at webpage problems.
11. Register your site in Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT) and check there for anything that might hint at webpage problems.
12. Add an XML sitemap and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools. Also, be sure to add your robots.txt file.

Surviving the Year of the Panda

Take a deep breath and realize that the sky is NOT falling just because another Panda update is around the corner.  With regular Panda updates becoming the norm, it is important to make sure that any technical problems with your site are caught and fixed immediately.  Additionally, providing quality content and a good user experience is key for improving site rankings.

While no one knows for sure how future Panda releases will impact site rankings, implementing these 12 upgrades might help SEOs avoid the next Panda attack.

As we continue sharing Google+ invites and building our Circles, it may be a good idea to figure out what Google+ is and why everyone, including businesses, are jumping on the +1 bandwagon.

What is Google+?

Google+ is the search giant’s answer to Facebook and Twitter. Google+ took off in mid-June and has become the most talked about “next big thing” of 2011. Recent reports indicate Google+ reached 18 million members as of July 19, 2011 and demand for invitations grows every day.

Google+ employs “Circles” instead of “friends” as a way to organize and categorize connections. Bloggers are already predicting that Google+ can eventually be a solution to Facebook Friends and Lists.

Each “+1” can be compared to a “thumbs up” or “like” from a real person. Google classifies these clicks as personal recommendations and signals that the site is a good one. Users who are logged into Google+ will see avatars of anyone in their circle who has +1’d a site in addition to the total +1 count.

While Google+ will eventually include a full menu of social media options, for now its greatest impact is allowing users to share and vote for web pages, blog posts, and videos.

Is Google+ effective?

If the potential of Google+ holds once it goes into full release, users will have the power to influence their followers and spread content quickly across the Internet. Even in limited release, early indications are that Google+ has the ability to drive large amounts of traffic to major sites. As of the end of June, Google’s new tool had already made it into the top 10 referrers list for TechCrunch, and other major sites have reported similar results.

What does this mean? Good content and good design will catch the attention of power users, and a +1 recommendation from them can put a URL in front of the eyes of thousands of followers. Bad content and design will be skipped over and no amount of manipulation of link farms will get content in front of human eyes.

Can Google+ improve your search results?

Google+ is predicted to significantly impact search personalization. Google may give higher ranking priority to those pages that receive +1s from Google+ circle members, changing how SERPs are displayed for specific users.

There is also a strong indication that Google and Bing are moving away from using link popularity as the most important signal in ranking. The main reason for this might be because social signals – +1’s – are harder to manipulate than links. The search engines may alter their algorithms to collect Google+ social signals from users and give them a higher weight in search engine rankings.

What to Expect from Google+ and How Will it Impact SEO

The main caveat being proffered across the web is that it is really too early to tell how Google+ will impact traffic and SEO. Google+ is in limited release while the bugs are fixed and remaining features are developed. Despite some recent growing pains, Google+ users are optimistic about the new platform, telling Google, “It’s alright, man! You rock.”

One key feature that has yet to be rolled out is Google+ business pages. A recent statement from Google indicates that a Google+ business environment will not be revealed until “later this year”. Until then, Google is discouraging businesses from using regular profiles to connect with Google+ users, even threatening to shut-down non-user profiles.

As has been argued for years, sites need to put their focus on pleasing human visitors rather than catering to algorithms. As the Google+ Bandwagon waits to see what will happen next, Google must wait for the human-generated data that +1 is designed to collect.

Part 1: How SyCara started

Part 2: What is the partnership between Tallwave and SyCara

Part 3: SyCara and SEO

Part 4: What does Scottsdale need to attract technology investors

You will have noticed the Celtic knot in the SyCara logo which we used because of the distinctly Irish flavor of the name.  When we were naming the product we sat around a table brainstorming and finally ran out of ideas.  Everything we came up with just did not sound right and in almost every case the domain name was already taken for any names we suggested.  Being Irish I decided that we would come up with a name that was a mixture of Irish and English and at least the domain name would be available.  We used Sy for System and Cara is the Irish for friend.  Hence SyCara so I guess you could say that the name is Irlish!.  We chose the logo because of the beautiful Celtic design and hope that you like it too.  The celtic knot goes back to the 4th and 5th centuryand was  used extensively in the early days of christianity in Ireland to make the Celtic cross that is a synonymous with Irish Christianity.

So in the language of my native Ireland “Ta suil agam go mbeidh La Feile Padraig agibh go lear” or in english “We wish you all a very Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

You can read the details and register here.

 Since these are recent changes, it is a bit premature to definitively say how this will affect SEO.  However, the best place to start is to keep in mind some of the basic concepts of social media. Your content must be fresh and relevant to the user. Simply adding a “like” or “retweet” button to an existing page is probably not going to raise those metrics much unless you engage with your users and  encourage them to promote your site to their followers.

 Your Facebook page, with its privacy level set to “everyone,” should contain similar content to your website and be updated often. Once users post to your Facebook page’s wall, make sure you interact with them. Not only are you getting a chance to use your keywords more often, but you will increase the chances of that user hitting the “like” button and sharing your content with their friends. Just like you would on your website, make sure you are using your keywords in a manner that makes sense. Do not use them so often that they look out of context or overused. The same goes with links. Use them in your replies, but not so often to look out of place or make the crawlers think your page is spam.

 Twitter metrics tend to work mostly for short term gains in page rank. If tweets with a link to your site start to trend on Twitter, expect to see a bump in page rank. However, some are saying this may have a longer lasting impact as Google and Bing refine how they measure the relevance of trending tweets and can better weed out spammy tweets.

 The magic of social media is that it gives a brand many different ways to interact with its market. Now that Google and Bing are following these conversations, it will be interesting to see how they will help SEO in general evolve. Expect a lot of changes!

A recent study by Experian Hitwise showed that Bing’s search results have become more accurate than Google’s results. According to the report, more than 80% of the searches on Bing led users to a Web site. Google had a 65% success rate.

Now that Bing is showing results and increasing market share, SEO pros are asking themselves what they should be doing differently to make sure they get top rank on both Google AND Bing. Adam Audette at Search Engine Watch recently posted a piece on Bing with SEO tips. He feels that SEO tactics for Bing should be very similar to Google of a few years ago, with a few important differences:

General SEO Approach for Bing

Consistency: Ensure the signals are pointing in the same direction. URL structure and canonicalization, internal linking, rel=canonical tags, XML sitemaps, robots exclusions, should all follow canonical standards for your site.

Efficiency: Enable compression and http conditional GET with If-Modified-Since to give the crawler a break. (Bingbot supersedes msnbot, but the latter should still be used in robots.txt and elsewhere redundantly with bingbot until officially deprecated.) Microsoft has a handy tool for checking both compression and conditional get requests.

Quality: Have high-quality content. Don’t try to squeak by with thin content and lots of authority pushed through the link profile.

Links: While I hate to say it, Bing’s engine certainly appears susceptible to link spam. Not a good thing, and I’m not advocating anyone follow the path of paid links, but they sadly seem to work all too well on Bing today.

Specific SEO Tactics for Bing

Bing makes strong use of XML sitemaps (especially for large sites). Keep them up to date and use an index file to centralize multiple files. Use canonical URLs and ensure product-level URLs are included (or article-level if a publishing site). Any deep content should have explicit, canonical URLs defined in a XML sitemap file for Bing.

For publishers, use a centralized RSS page featuring all new and updated content. Ensure this page is featuring canonical URLs that are relevant for the site. This is the best way to let Bing know about your fresh content.

Parameter handling is the best way to deal with URL normalization for Bing, since 301s are problematic and rel=canonical isn’t yet supported. The parameter handling tool in Bing Web Tools is your friend, use it.

Like Google, Bing will most certainly institute ongoing changes to its algorithm. As it evolves, we will post updates on how to best optimize for Bing.

Great Interview from Web Pro News on SEO for Google and Bing:

More WebProNews Videos

Fionn Downhill is VP of Strategy for SEO tool Software Company SyCara.com