This article can be seen in it’s original form on the SEOMOZ site.

Google Fellow Amit Singhal explains that “Different searches have different freshness needs.”

The implication is that Google measures all of your documents for freshness, then scores each page according to the type of search query. While some queries need fresh content, Google still uses old content for other queries (more on this later.)

Singhal describes the types of keyword searches most likely to require fresh content:

• Recent events or hot topics: “occupy oakland protest” “nba lockout”
• Regularly recurring events: “NFL scores” “dancing with the stars” “exxon earnings”
• Frequent updates: “best slr cameras” “subaru impreza reviews”

Google’s patents offer incredible insight as to how web content can be evaluated using freshness signals, and rankings of that content adjusted accordingly.

Understand that these are not hard and fast rules, but rather theories consistent with patent filings, experiences of other SEOs, and experiments performed over the years. Nothing substitutes for direct experience, so use your best judgement and feel free to perform your own experiments based on the information below.

1. Freshness by Inception Date

A webpage is given a “freshness” score based on its inception date, which decays over time. This freshness score can boost a piece of content for certain search queries, but degrades as the content becomes older.

The inception date is often when Google first becomes aware of the document, such as when Googlebot first indexes a document or discovers a link to it.

“For some queries, older documents may be more favorable than newer ones. As a result, it may be beneficial to adjust the score of a document based on the difference (in age) from the average age of the result set.”
– All quotes from US Patent Application Document Scoring Based on Document Content Update

2. Document Changes (How Much) Influences Freshness

The age of a webpage or domain isn’t the only freshness factor. Search engines can score regularly updated content for freshness differently from content that doesn’t change. In this case, the amount of change on your webpage plays a role.

For example, the change of a single sentence won’t have as big of a freshness impact as a large change to the main body text.

“Also, a document having a relatively large amount of its content updated over time might be scored differently than a document having a relatively small amount of its content updated over time.”

3. The Rate of Document Change (How Often) Impacts Freshness

Content that changes more often is scored differently than content that only changes every few years. In this case, consider the homepage of the New York Times, which updates every day and has a high degree of change.

“For example, a document whose content is edited often may be scored differently than a document whose content remains static over time. Also, a document having a relatively large amount of its content updated over time might be scored differently than a document having a relatively small amount of its content updated over time.”

4. Freshness Influenced by New Page Creation

Instead of revising individual pages, websites add completely new pages over time. This is the case with most blogs. Websites that add new pages at a higher rate may earn a higher freshness score than sites that add content less frequently.

Some SEOs insist you should add 20-30% new pages to your site every year. This provides the opportunity to create fresh, relevant content, although you shouldn’t neglect your old content if it needs attention.

“UA may also be determined as a function of one or more factors, such as the number of “new” or unique pages associated with a document over a period of time. Another factor might include the ratio of the number of new or unique pages associated with a document over a period of time versus the total number of pages associated with that document.”

5. Changes to Important Content Matter More

Changes made in “important” areas of a document will signal freshness differently than changes made in less important content. Less important content includes navigation, advertisements, and content well below the fold. Important content is generally in the main body text above the fold.

“…content deemed to be unimportant if updated/changed, such as Javascript, comments, advertisements, navigational elements, boilerplate material, or date/time tags, may be given relatively little weight or even ignored altogether when determining UA.”

6. Rate of New Link Growth Signals Freshness

If a webpage sees an increase in its link growth rate, this could indicate a signal of relevance to search engines. For example, if folks start linking to your personal website because you are about to get married, your site could be deemed more relevant and fresh (as far as this current event goes.)

That said, an unusual increase in linking activity can also indicate spam or manipulative link building techniques. Be careful, as engines are likely to devalue such behavior.

“…a downward trend in the number or rate of new links (e.g., based on a comparison of the number or rate of new links in a recent time period versus an older time period) over time could signal to search engine 125 that a document is stale, in which case search engine 125 may decrease the document’s score.”

7. Links from Fresh Sites Pass Fresh Value

Links from sites that have a high freshness score themselves can raise the freshness score of the sites they link to.

For example, if you obtain a link off an old, static site that hasn’t been updated in years, this doesn’t pass the same level of freshness value as a link from a fresh page – for example, the homepage of Wired.com. Justin Briggs coined this FreshRank.

“Document S may be considered fresh if n% of the links to S are fresh or if the documents containing forward links to S are considered fresh.”

8. Changes in Anchor Text Signals may Devalue Links

If a website changes dramatically over time, it makes sense that any new anchor text pointing to the page will change as well.

For example, If you buy a domain about automobiles, then change the format to content about baking, over time your new incoming anchor text will shift from cars to cookies.

In this instance, Google might determine that your site has changed so much that the old anchor text is no longer relevant, and devalue those older links entirely.

“The date of appearance/change of the document pointed to by the link may be a good indicator of the freshness of the anchor text based on the theory that good anchor text may go unchanged when a document gets updated if it is still relevant and good.“

9. User Behavior Indicates Freshness

What happens when your once wonderful content becomes old and outdated? For example, your website hosts a local bus schedule… for 2009. As content becomes outdated, folks spend less time on your site. They press the back button to Google’s results and choose another url.

Google picks up on these user behavior metrics and scores your content accordingly.

“If a document is returned for a certain query and over time, or within a given time window, users spend either more or less time on average on the document given the same or similar query, then this may be used as an indication that the document is fresh or stale, respectively.”

10. Older Documents Still Win Certain Queries

Google understands the newest result isn’t always the best. Consider a search query for “Magna Carta”. An older, authoritative result is probably best here. In this case, having a well-aged document may actually help you.

Google’s patent suggests they determine the freshness requirement for a query based on the average age of documents returned for the query.

“For some queries, documents with content that has not recently changed may be more favorable than documents with content that has recently changed. As a result, it may be beneficial to adjust the score of a document based on the difference from the average date-of-change of the result set.“

Conclusion

The goal of a search engine is to return the most relevant results to users. For your part, this requires an honest assessment of your own content. What part of your site would benefit most from freshness?

Old content that exists simply to generate pageviews, but accomplishes little else, does more harm than good for the web. On the other hand, great content that continually answers a user’s query may remain fresh forever.

Be fresh. Be relevant. Most important, be useful.

The +1 has an indirect effect on your site’s search rank. This does not mean the more +1’s a link has, the higher rank it achieves in traditional search results. Take this scenario:

When a Google+ user +1’s a piece of content, he gives it his “stamp of approval.” Then, say one of his connections from Google+ searches for the same or related topic. Because of Search plus Your World, his friend is more likely to click on the same link the original user +1’d. This is because content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers, according to Google.

Since the +1′d link has a chance at a higher Click-Through-Rate (CTR), there is a greater potential the link will be shared, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or any social network. An experiment by Rand Fishkin, CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz, tested the relationship between Twitter and Facebook shares and search results in Google. He found a positive correlation between the number of retweets and shares a link received and its search ranking. This means, the more the link was passed around on Twitter and Facebook, the higher the search rank of the page. This in turn led to better SEO.

A Google +1 can indirectly lead to a better page rank. A greater number of +1’s increases a link’s potential for a high CTR, which could lead to increased social sharing, and in turn can increase its Google search rank. What’s important to note here is the correlation, not causation, between +1′s, other social shares, and search rank.

The bottom line is, the SEO effects of a +1 are very indirect, which means traditional SEO practices should not be ignored. SEO methods such as link building, relevant keywords, and URL structure have a more significant impact on page ranking.

This diagram shows the percentages of websites using various content management systems, as of Jan’12.

Our CMS of choice, WordPress, takes the top place in popularity.  WordPress is used by 15.8% of all the websites, or 53.8% of site driven by an off-the-shelf CMS system.

CuCo Creative have experienced a significant growth in the number of website and digital marketing enquiries – from both new and existing clients. In the last 6 months alone, CuCo have designed and built websites for numerous clients both in the local area and nationwide – ranging from the Healthcare to the Tourism industry.

CuCo specialise in using the CMS ‘WordPress’ which comes with a list of advantages – a main one being its simplicity of the admin side. It means that their clients not only receive an excellently designed and built website but they are also able to easily edit the site themselves, as and when required. A feature which is very popular amongst their clients.

The successful creative marketing agency which is based in Bournemouth offer a variety of other digital services which include; HTML emails, social media support, SEO services and PPC. The agency also specialise in marketing and graphic design services.

Since they were first established in 2008, CuCo have built an impressive portfolio of clients and are proud to offer an excellent customer service which has seen them achieve Recommended Agency Status as well as some long-standing clients.

Tony Cook, Managing Director at CuCo states ‘Our clients often contact us with specific requirements for their websites. Being able to offer them a designed and built website using WordPress means that they get a fully customisable site which is not only bespoke to their own business needs but also enables them to edit the site themselves – with the knowledge that CuCo are the other end of the phone should they need our support. We have seen a significant growth in our digital offerings recently, which is a really positive step for CuCo and something which we hope to develop further in the future.’

At the end of last year, CuCo were approached by Allied Office Machines – specialists in copier and print technology. The company, based in Hampshire, have been established since 1994 and required a re-brand as well as a new website.

CuCo firstly gave the brand an updated look and feel, taking the current logo and giving it a modern and up to date twist which meant it could then be rolled out onto their new website.

Having built up a reputation for providing excellent customer service and advice, Allied’s new website needed to further support their customer needs and offers a ‘Media Centre’ which shows video demonstrations of their multifunctional copiers.

CuCo have designed and built the website using WordPress which enables Allied to customise their own pictures and text, a feature which they specifically required when contacting CuCo. Using WordPress also means that CuCo were able to add the plug-ins required for the site, such as the ‘call me back’ feature and the newsletter subscriptions.

As an experienced creative marketing agency, CuCo understand the vital importance of branding. We know that a brand is ‘only everything’ within a company, it’s the entire experience with your customers. It’s what you stand for, a promise you make, and the personality you convey. Branding gets right to the core of your business’ values.

A strong brand can make your business stand out from the crowd, particularly in today’s competitive markets. It is about discovering and communicating the essence of your business and what it delivers to your customers. In effect, your brand creates your business’ reputation and its ‘personality’. Your brand lives in every day-to-day interaction you have with your market:

- The images you convey
- The messages you deliver on your website, proposals and sales materials
- The way your employees interact with customers
- A customer’s opinion of you versus competition

With all of this in mind, CuCo can help to create a brand or re-brand which consistently and repeatedly tells your prospects and customers why they should buy from you. We will give your brand a voice, a tone, a mark, a way of behaving, an attitude and a message. CuCo can revitalise your brand, looking at every element to create a brand which has a real impact. Below are just a few of our branding projects.

CuCo recently finished designing the latest issue of the BH Business Magazine, the official magazine for the Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce. The magazine showcases the latest news of local businesses in the Bournemouth area, plus local Government news. With a circulation of 5,000 copies a month the magazine is posted to all Bournemouth Chamber members and distributed to businesses in the major trading districts in and around Bournemouth.

This is the third issue designed by CuCo – who have given the publication a breath of fresh air since taking on the project.

Whilst Google+ may not be new to the market – it first appeared in the Summer of 2011- it’s only recently that brands and companies of different sizes are starting to take notice and are realising its importance in the future of social networking as well as website searchability. So – what is Google+ and why will it benefit your brand?

The basics
Google+ allows you to create a page for your business, much like Facebook. You can then personalise your profile with photos, information and videos plus post updates to your wall – again much like Facebook!

The main difference to Facebook is the +Circles – these allow you to create different groups in which you can divide your contacts, dependant on your relationship with them, for example you could have circles of ‘Suppliers’ or ‘New Clients’. The information you relay to these ‘circles’ can then differ – meaning you can target your messaging specifically to that Circle and better your personal engagement with them.

Why Google+ will help with your SEO
Here’s where it gets a little confusing…

Google is the largest internet search engine in the UK (at 92% market share in June ’11 compared to only 65% in the US as of Dec ’11). When consumers are looking for a product or service they use the site to search for the most appropriate source – which means that it is important for your website to rank as high as possible when people search for your products or services, your company name or key words relating to your business.

Ensuring high rankings has previously predominately been down to the content of your site ,which helps with SEO (search engine optimisation), however, with the development of Google+ it is now also what you add to your Google+ profile which is going to help you achieve high rankings. Search results will also be down to the companies in your Google+ circles and who you are following.

Google’s Search plus Your World – aggregates data from your Google+ network (when you’re signed in) and delivers personalised results (from your Google+ network) which get bumped up to the top of your search engine result page. Basically, Search Plus gives preferential treatment to Google+ activity.

You may have also noticed the +1 button next to your website listing in a Google search? This tells you who is recommending and interacting with your brand across the web. All the +1s around your brand will be connected directly to your official Google+ Page, anchored to your identity and allowing you to analyse data related to those +1 clicks.

With more +1 clicks, Google will be able to take those recommendations and analytics and then put your company in places that actually matter. In this manner, Google+ will extend your brand and put it in front of users across the globe.

Just signing into Google will affect the search results you get. In a test we did, the page we were looking for was on page 7 of the results but as soon as we signed in it jumped to page 4.

The future
It has been argued that the internet search engine giant, Google, are trying to monopolise the market and are ‘forcing’ people to use Google+ to ensure they are ranked highly in Google searches. Stopping sites such as Facebook and Twitter having a look-in by prioritising Google+ results regardless of whether they are more relevant or up-to-date.

Either way, with Google being a powerful site on the internet it means you can’t miss out. Set yourself up with a Google+ page and start promoting it alongside your other social media sites. Eventually, you will be able to direct customers directly to your brand’s online identity with one simple search through Google. Once they’ve added your company/brand to their Google+ circle you can engage with them, forming deeper relationships and therefore increasing sales.

To find out more about Google, Google+ and Google Analytics – contact CuCo email hidden; JavaScript is required

There is no-doubt that social media marketing is now here to stay – and it’s becoming the future for smaller companies as well as bigger brands, as business owners of all sizes are realising that now is the time to start investing time and money into sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

But – we still have many of our clients asking…’What will my business get out of it?’, ‘We’ve got nothing to talk about on the sites’, and, ‘We know we should probably be doing it, but just don’t have the time!’ Sound familiar? Well, now is the time to get answers to these questions and to fully understand how social media works – and ultimately, to start embracing and love-ing it!

Social media marketing should no-longer be seen as a stand-alone activity which is done on an ad-hoc basis, it should be part of your overall marketing strategy; like SEO or email marketing. Build it in to your plan and ensure it is a daily activity which someone in your team is responsible for and falls in love with – or outsource it to an agency like CuCo!

Using social media for your business can give you; business exposure, a platform to communicate with your target audiences, new fans who love your brand or company, and can help to entice new customers. Which begs the question – why wouldn’t you want to use it?

Need more convincing – here are just ‘some’ useful statistics:

• Facebook has over 30 million unique users – which is 50% of the UK population and your target audience.
• 51% of Facebook users and 64% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from the brands they follow.
• 34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter.

So, can you afford to ignore social media marketing any longer? Stop experimenting and start using it properly – check our our top tips for getting it right. If you would like a ‘Social Media Report’ outlining some top tips and ideas specifically for your business – get in touch and let us help steer you in the right direction email hidden; JavaScript is required

Jo recently did a social media healthcheck for the family theme park, Adventure Wonderland, which has since seen numbers to their Facebook site increase:

‘Jo’s advice was very useful. Following her healthcheck we have put in place many of her suggestions and our Facebook use has increased considerably already. She had good suggestions for making the time consuming process of keeping abreast of social media sites as easy and user friendly as possible. I would recommend her healthcheck to anyone as an inexpensive and quick way of maximising social media in business.’ – Lucy Lucas-Rowe, Adventure Wonderland

CuCo have recently finalised another ‘foot-focused’ website for the London Nail Laser Clinic. As their dedicated digital agency, the clinic commissioned CuCo to design and build a website which would specifically focus on SteriShoe – a product sold by the foot and nail experts.

The London Nail Laser Clinic are the only UK suppliers of SteriShoe, the ultraviolet shoe sanitizer which effectively sanitizers the inside of your shoes. They therefore wanted a website which promoted the product and detailed its use and advantages as well as allowing consumers to buy the product online. The site was built using WordPress and allows the clinic to easily manage its content, as and when required.

The relationship between CuCo and the specialist clinic has grown since the beginning of 2011 when CuCo first produced their website, the clinic now approach CuCo for all of their Marketing solutions. CuCo also manage the Google Adword campaigns for the London Nail Laser Clinic’s main website – which has since seen a significant increase of click-throughs rates.

“CuCo are a pleasure to work with, professional in their approach, friendly, always quick to respond to any query and consistent in their level of responsiveness” – Michael Abrahams, The London Nail Laser Clinic

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