What Does Google’s New SSL Search Mean For Analytics?

Filed under: Analytics — Tags: , , , — Mark @ Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Last month Google made the announcement that in addition to its regular search choice they would start offering a new “secure” alternative.  The new offering can be found at https://www.google.com and the idea behind the new service is rather simple. By using SSL technology you are able to create a secure and encrypted connection between your browser and Google, ensuring that no third parties on your network will be able to intercept your search results.

However, this new enhanced privacy potentially comes at a cost for those of us out there who rely on analytical software to gain valuable insights into how users come to discover our site. Let’s say for example you owned a website that sold home theatre systems, traditionally when a user searched for the phrase “buy home theatre” in Google they would be taken to the address http://www.google.com/search?q=buy+home+theatre. Then when a user clicked your listing in the search results and was taken to your website, using analytical software you could then see what page the user came from, and in turn, discover what search phrases they used to discover your site. (more…)



Faster, Faster!! Page Speed and How Your Site Ranks in Google

Filed under: Google, SEO — Tags: , , , , — Amye Saunders @ Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

There is a lot of talk in the traps about website page speed. Google (via Matt Cutts and Webmaster Tools) has openly stated that page speed will be a factor into the ranking algorithm for 2010 and will likely roll out with Caffeine – faster the better and you’ll be rewarded for it.

Google Webmaster tools have been reporting sample data from sites that have page speed issues (you can find this in the Labs section under Site Performance). Within Google Webmaster it also suggests the supplied Page Speed Firefox plug-in (installs as part of Firebug) should be used to get more accurate and full data. This has been available since July 2009 so I guess we have had plenty of notice. This is already in play for AdWords where page speed will affect your quality score.

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Google Improves Search Refinement and Adds Longer Snippets using Orion Technology!

Filed under: Updates — Tags: , , , , — Poorani Prithiviraj @ Friday, March 27th, 2009

On the 24th of February, Google made the announcement of two new improvements made to their search results. These Google search improvements included:

1. an expanded list of useful related searches – the terms found at the bottom, and sometimes at the top, of the search results page.

For example, if you type in something like “sydney restaurants guide” in to the search box on Google; at the top or bottom of the results page, you will see ‘Searches related to sydney restaurants guide’ which provides more relevant key phrases.

What Google have done is they’ve deployed a new technology based on the 2006 acquisition of “Orion” which can better understand associations and concepts related to a particular search. (more…)