Mark Traphagen › Comments

"Great balanced post Eli. Your bump was even bigger than mine1 I went from an average of 70-90 new per day to leveling off at about 300 per day the last couple of days." - Mark Traphagen

"We need to be clear here: Dustin did NOT "lose Authorship." It's just that the Structured Data Testing Tool was updated a month or so ago and the new version doesn't recognize vanity URLs for showing verification. But I have a vanity URL and I was still getting the author snippet for sites where I used it and those sites continued to show in my Author Stats at Google Webmaster Tools. So a vanity URL does NOT "break" authorship, it just doesn't work in the verificaiton tool." - Mark Traphagen

"Thanks for this Jeff! Fascinating stuff to be sure. I've seen enough from anecdotal experience as an active content creator on many sites who has been active on Google+ since its third day to already be convinced that there can be a profound SEO effect via Google+. But I do have some questions and observations about your study: 1) While I would love to believe that topical relevance plays a part, I'm not sure there is enough here to prove that it exists or is significant. Since each of the sites was about a different topic, relative competitiveness of the KW you were tracking will be at play here as well. So comparing how each ranked after one day may not be conclusive that topical relevance was the "winning" factor. 2) I'm also not convinced that you proved a limit to the number of links that can be in Contributor To. Display of the Authorship rich snippet is algorithmically controlled and never guaranteed for any particular query at any given time. Seeing it one day and not the next..." - Mark Traphagen

"Yes, Google Authorship is based on Google knowing you're identity via a Google+ profile. To date they have established no other means by which you can verify Authorship for Google SERPS. As for remaining "relevant," who can say? Google is still very far away from being able to implement anything like an "author rank," so as far as a direct ranking signal, no. But you will miss out on whatever benefits having your photo in SERPs might bring." - Mark Traphagen

"Bob, what do you mean by that? Can you expand?" - Mark Traphagen

"Thanks Vondell!" - Mark Traphagen

"Excellent, clear-headed article, Danny, on this much-hyped and much misunderstood topic. I had the same take on Schmidt's quote when it first surfaced (see http://www.virante.org/blog/20..., but your longer excerpt only confirms what I suspected at the time. We might also add that Schmidt's book is his speculations about the future, So that makes it even less worthwhile as "proof" that Google is doing Author Rank today." - Mark Traphagen

"Two things: with Search Plus Your World Google has had personalized search results affected by social contacts for over a year. Second, how does Graph Search duplicate Google's "reach" when it is limited to your friends (or in some cases, friends of friends)?" - Mark Traphagen

"Rand, even though Jesse is on this list, I'm still honored to be here (I kid!....about Jesse, not the honor). Right back atcha, you've become one of my most valued follows on G+ as well." - Mark Traphagen

"Barry, this guy only covers his tracks when he gets caught. And then it's always "oh I forgot" or "it was a mistake." No need to thank him. He's a low life scraper who gives SEO a bad name." - Mark Traphagen

"And then reposting them on your own site with a few minor changes to make them look like your own, eh Greg? Yesterday me, the day before that Rand Fishkin, now Barry. Not too surprised between yesterday and today you stopped taking comments on your "posts."" - Mark Traphagen

"Carol, Greg's a stand up guy. Shortly after I posted my comment he started posting publicly on Google+ and thanked those of us who had challenged him to do so. I think he's already getting a hint at the kind of awesome engagement you can get there that we already know so well." - Mark Traphagen

"Awesome Greg. Some of us who have been around G+ for a while are a little more sensitive to this issue. Back last year there were a number of highly-publicized and cited web articles in large audience publications that proclaimed Google+ was a failure and a "ghost town." Almost invariably, when we looked at the account of the author (if they even had one), they had nothing posted publicly, and/or never engaged with people who did circle them.  Glad to see you've come into the light ;-)" - Mark Traphagen

"Greg, This is a well-done article, and a number of us with large followings on Google+ were getting ready to share it....but we didn't. Here's why. You don't set an example of what you teach. Your profile has no public posts. None at all. At the end of your post you ask me to "chat with you on Google+." Why would I? You have nothing there for me to engage with." - Mark Traphagen

How to use circles to move prospects along the sales funnel to conversion. - Mark Traphagen

Long term strategy to build relationships leading to more guest posting opportunities. - Mark Traphagen

"I think this shows two things: 1) Brands not using Google+ are missing an opportunity to build a community where there competition isn't. There are brands that are doing this to great benefit. 2) Twitter owns the second screen, and rightfully so. It's the easiest place to do the kind of in the moment quick reactions that hashtag ads are aimed at." - Mark Traphagen

"I think this shows two things: 1) Brands not using Google+ are missing an opportunity to build a community where there competition isn't. There are brands that are doing this to great benefit. 2) Twitter owns the second screen, and rightfully so. It's the easiest place to do the kind of in the moment quick reactions that hashtag ads are aimed at." - Mark Traphagen

"What a misrepresentation! There was NO interview with Schmidt. What you refer to are very brief excerpts from his upcoming book in which he speculates about what may be yet to come in the digital age. The quote that might refer to Author Rank (although he makes no explicit reference to that) says that verified authors WILL get a boost in SERPs, not that they already are. There is absolutely no evidence that Google has yet implemented Author Rank as a significant ranking factor, and every Google staffer asked about it is clear that it has not yet been turned on." - Mark Traphagen

"Did you put your final message to him in ALL CAPS? No wait, that didn't work for the agreement the first time. I remember hearing Wil Reynolds of SEER Interactive at MOZCon tell us that we need to be willing to fire clients. Get rid of those who don't want to let us lead them to where their business will actually prosper. They are dead weight keeping you from helping people who really want to be helped." - Mark Traphagen

"This happens within Google+ itself. A reshared post by my profile is often able to outrank the original post (and often be the only one showing) in Google search for a search of the OP's first several words (which Google appears to treat like a title tag). I posted about this at http://www.virante.org/blog/20..." - Mark Traphagen

"Great coverage of what Graph Search can and can't do. I have a serious concern, though, about the quality of recommendations that an engine based around Facebook Likes can offer, because a FB Like does not always mean what we mean in real life when we say we like something. I've detailed this concern at http://www.virante.org/blog/20... where I also predict a coming Like Inflation due to the new search." - Mark Traphagen

"I have one takeaway, and it's from your second paragraph: You owe me a lunch ;-)" - Mark Traphagen

"Now that Facebook has announced Graph Search... I'm predicting rampant Like inflation on Facebook: http://www.inbound.org/article... (and I explain why Likes result in terrible friend recommendations anyway.)." - Mark Traphagen

"Ian, I can only say that we are in the very early days of Communities. Google tends to put a product out there when they think they have enough basic functionality that people can play with it. Then they watch how we use it and listen to our feedback, test, measure, and improve. It's been our experience that they really do listen to and measure feedback. (There's a feedback link under the left sidebar of every community.) And we've been told by the head of the Communities project that they are feverishly working on new features for Communities, so I expect we will eventually have many of the tools you clamor for." - Mark Traphagen

"Glad you're finding it useful, Amit. Yes, good moderation is crucial, especially if your Community gets large. When you become large, there will inevitably be spammers and trolls, and you've got to keep that cleaned out or people will not join or members will leave." - Mark Traphagen

"Glad you found this helpful, Brian!" - Mark Traphagen

"Ronnie covered one advantage well, but here's a more fundamental one: Google+ Brand Pages can create and join Communities as the brand identity. Facebook Pages can neither create nor join groups. This is huge, I think. In Communities you have the opportunity to personalize your brand, to help people with their questions or fire them up with new ideas. While Facebook is taking away opportunities for you to directly engage with real people, Google+ is creating more of them." - Mark Traphagen

"Glad to see you went with Disqus. It really helps me to keep track of all my blog conversations. While I have to stay diverse and be active on many platforms because of my job, there's no doubt that for myself, I'll be using Google Plus more in 2013 (if, as you say, that's even possible!)." - Mark Traphagen

"Saul, everyone is going to find their own use cases and what they feel most comfortable with. I happen to agree that if you have a personal profile that you are willing to use to represent your brand, that can be very powerful. But not everyone will be in that situation. My post was meant for those who do businees through Google+ primarily or exclusively through a brand page." - Mark Traphagen