Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Google Tells RapGenius “Yo! That’s Uncool!”” plus 1 more

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Google Tells RapGenius “Yo! That’s Uncool!” Posted: 26 Dec 2013 07:01 AM PST Remember back in the day when Marketing Pilgrim was just a little ol’ SEO blog? Well, things have changed with the changes in the online landscape. One thing that hasn’t changed though is our interest in a good ol’ fashioned Google beat down of supposedly unscrupulous SEO tactics by a site. Especially when that site is attached to about $15m of Marc Andreessen’s money. Online lyric site RapGenius has faced the wrath of the Goog. According to several sources the site has been stripped of its search rankings and is now in the process of ‘making nice’ with Google to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. The Business Insider reports in a rather simplistic manner Rap Genius was caught trying to game Google to get higher search rankings. Google’s search results are based on a lot of different factors, but at the most basic level, Google measures how many other sites are linking to your site to determine where you should be in search rankings. So, Rap Genius was asking people to add links to Rap Genius pages on their sites. It’s a fairly crude, somewhat scuzzy practice. And Rap Genius got caught doing it. Google really hates when people try to game Google. So, Google has severely punished Rap Genius. Severely punished in this case means stripping the site of their rankings which is the lifeblood of their business. Yup, that hurts. TechCrunch puts a little more meat on the bone with this But earlier this week, Rap Genius invited bloggers to join its "Rap Genius Blog Affiliate" program. John Marbach, the founder of email filtering startup Glider, emailed in asking for details, and Rap Genius offerered to tweet links to his blog in exchange for him placing a series of links to Rap Genius' Justin Bieber lyrics on his blog. The links were designed to trick Google into giving Rap Genius better result rankings on searches for lyrics to songs from Bieber's new album — sure to be popular searches this season. This is the email that RapGenius sent. But of course, RapGenius has seen the error of its ways and sent this TechCrunch "We are working with Google right now to resolve this. They've been really great, helping us identify changes we need to make, even on Christmas. We're working on it as fast as we can, and expect to be back on Google very soon. It sucks to be off Google for us and for the thousands of our community members who have worked so hard to create what's often the best search result. We hope everyone who reads this will take a little time out from their Christmas and head to Rap Genius and sign up so you can contribute your knowledge on your favorite subjects – becoming a member of our community makes the site way more fun. Merry Christmas" Like any irreverent and obnoxious kid that got caught doing something they knew was completely wrong they are acting contrite which is the proper thing to do but also a complete act considering the history of this group. Now this is a search issue so you know that Danny Sullivan has a point of view. He has started his examination of the situation at Search Engine Land and had this to say …..the attempt by Rap Genius to gain links to rank better was fairly dumb on many aspects, if particular in a post-Penguin world where savvy SEOs understand that getting the exact same type of links in a sudden burst is probably going to cause you problems with Google. Still, when this all blew up on Christmas Eve, even I was scratching my head to figure out if this was actually a Google violation or not. Rap Genius's apology post had the company deciding itself that maybe it violated guidelines that links should be "editorially placed." Maybe. Maybe not. We don't know exactly why Rap Genius is in trouble because Google won't say (yes, we asked, and we got a no comment on the matter for now). We know it's in trouble because it's no longer ranking, but ironically, this might be because since Rap Genius has declared itself in violation of Google's guidelines, Google acted to penalize it based on that, even if Rap Genius might have been fine. The point is — understanding what's a good link with Google is incredibly hard these days. Google tells you links are important to rank; Google also tells you an increasing number of rules about which links "count" or how links might hurt you or even how you may need to "disavow" links. Danny promises to give some more thought to this since he found himself working on an SEO story about a rap lyric site on Christmas Day and realized it could probably wait. His take will, as always, be interesting. So what about it SEO’s? Old news? Dumb move? Who cares? Why bother? Rethinking your ‘strategy’? So many options ….. so many options. Let’s hear them. Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

‘Tis the Season to Return Things Posted: 26 Dec 2013 06:17 AM PST As ecommerce continues to grow it is also experiencing growing pains. Increased sales are good but all the enticements of free shipping and more also lead to something that most online retailers dread: returns. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on how this is impacting the online industry Free shipping and lenient return policies have given online retailing a huge boost. Now, chains are mining their order data to get shoppers to keep more purchases. Behind the uptick in e-commerce is a little known secret: As much as a third of all Internet sales gets returned, according to retail consultancy Kurt Salmon. And the tide of goods flowing back to retailers is rising. Shipper United Parcel Service Inc. expects returns to jump 15% this season from last year, making them a significant and growing cost for retailers. The stakes get even higher during the holidays, when return volume peaks. So this year, chains are digging through past transactions to weed out chronic returners, train shoppers to make better decisions or stem buyer’s remorse. Ahhh yes, the never ending quest to ‘train shoppers’ continues. Here’s the rub with that one. Shoppers have to WANT to change in order for them to change. The only real way to change their behavior is to make the ‘negative’ behavior more difficult. The problem here is that the online industry has created this monster and it is simply reaping what it has sown. Online shoppers love the thought that if they screwed up an order it can always be sent back for no charge. Sure, it’s not the best case scenario but it sure beats having to deal with stores and those nasty by-products of being out and about……people. But never fear, the geniuses of business have options that include annoying pop-ups that impede progress and treat the shopper like they are an idiot. Way to go! Fashion discounter Rue La La, owned by Kynetic LLC, is testing a program that gives customers access to their own purchasing history, and also access to sizing data across its customer base, to help them make better purchases the first time around. For instance, a customer who has continuously bought the same brand of dress shirts in both a small and a medium might see a note pop up saying: “Are you sure you want to order the small? The last five times you ordered both sizes, you only kept the medium,” Chief Executive Steve Davis said. Sure that’s a bit of an exaggeration but retailers do assume that most shoppers are idiots because they can’t seem to figure out poorly designed sites with terrible UX but, hey, it’s not the retailers fault that they make bad sites (I know that reads ‘stupid’ but I really think that many companies simply turn a blind eye to terrible site design and experience because some ‘expert’ sold them what was cool versus what actually works). So what to do about the returns concern? Whatever the answer it’s not going to be easy. Retailers say people who return a lot also typically buy a lot. But that isn’t always the case, and the burden appears to be growing. In the current holiday season, that is something retailers can ill afford, when many are already discounting heavily to win over cautious consumers. Holiday sales are expected to rise by 3.9% from last year, according to the National Retail Federation, a Washington trade group. There is more to examine here and I recommend you check out the WSJ article which covers more ground than this post allows. In the end, as an online retailer the real trick is a balancing act by which you give consumers what they want (convenience, free shipping, free returns, good prices etc) without actually giving them what they want because what they want can kill profits. Sounds like a difficult situation doesn’t it? Any thoughts on a solution?

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