Google Sidewiki – Your Site Owner’s Entry
Things got incredibly busy the past few days so here, finally, is the final, for now, entry on Google Sidewiki. There seems to have been a lot less chat about it last few days. I’ll update you in a couple of weeks on the status of it’s adoption.
Inserting the Owner’s Sidewiki Entry
- In the image above you’ll see the Sidewiki icon circled at the top of the image. You click on that and the Sidewiki opens on the left side of your screen.
- Be sure to indicate, “Write as Page Owner” to be certain that your entry remains in front of the queue.
- Create a welcoming title
- Insert your text below
- The final step is to publish your entry. Scroll down the Sidewiki to find the “publish” button.
What your entry looks like when it's published.
So what should you say in your Sidewiki? I suggest a general welcome message. Highlight interesting parts of the website, locations for commenting on your site or products and other ways to follow or connect with you on the web. Of course, if you have a particular brand message, be sure to include it here.
The usual warnings apply. Make sure you use correct spelling and grammar. Use some important keywords. What I’ve read on the topic so far indicates that Google is reading (indexing) the Sidewiki comments. If you want an interesting geek-level explanation of Sidewiki’s effect of search efforts, I recommend “Tracking Google Sidewiki” at LunaMetrics.
If anyone has additional advice or comments on my information, please post a comment after this article by clicking on “No Comments/Comments”. I really want to hear from you.
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When Third Voice appeared on the scene, it wasn’t long before various scripts were released to lock out Third Voice comments. My guess is we’ll see something along the same lines with Sidewiki, assuming someone doesn’t sue Google first. Google has become increasingly fat and arrogant and we’re starting to see the fallout of that.
This is some good information about how businesses can (and should) use SideWiki to their advantage.
One point to note about using links and keywords in your Sidewiki – although Google is indexing the Sidewiki pages, the links are nofollowed, so adding a link with keyword-focused anchor text isn’t going to help you out in terms of ranking higher for those keywords. Of course, you should always use keywords as long as it’s natural and makes sense.
Thanks for the shout out to my “geek-level” explanation of Sidewiki – I know it must be good if it’s reached geekdom
Thanks for that extra, and useful information. I wasn’t sure about the indexing. And you’re welcome for the “geek” label. I consider it a high compliment. My goal with this site is the translate “geek” into every day business language but without good articles like yours, I’d have less to offer.
Radiance