For those of you who read my posts regularly, you’ll know that I speak a lot about Google. And in particular, I speak a lot about an upcoming algorithm update being made by Google called “Caffeine.” Well, it would appear that this update may be starting to hit. Chris Crum from Web Pro News wrote an article today titled “Has Google Really Begun Changing How It Indexes The Web?” A fair question in which Chris responded that yes “it appears that more people are now seeing the effects from Caffeine out in the wild.” Chris went on to showcase several instances where it does indeed appear that Caffeine is changing things for his clients. We were curious too, so we took a look at about 10 of our current clients, however, and surprisingly did not notice anything unusual either way in regards to their rankings. In fact, most of our clients have remained consistent throughout the past few months. We know that Google announced that Caffeine would hit sometime after the holiday in an effort to keep webmasters sane and not disrupt holiday business. However, it is unclear whether or not this update has happened yet or if it is happening perhaps it is not yet widespread. In any case, we know for sure it is coming..so buckle up…it’s gonna be an interesting ride.
Archive for January, 2010
It’s Caffeine Time…Or Is It?
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Google Social Search
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Turns out, you can take your network with you. Check out Google Social Search and you’ll see what I mean. Google Social Search is a new concept at Google (currently in beta) that allows you to easily find online content written by people you know along side your regular search results. So if, for example, a friend of your has blogged about a specific subject when you search you will see their social media content integrated into Google’s normal listings. This is NOT personalized search, which is already happening on Google but an experiment that combines search and social media elements. The obvious reason behind this is that you will trust the opinions of your network more that you trust content from people you don’t know. Makes great sense and something we look forward to seeing develop. We fully expect that social search will not be a trend and will indeed be a sign of things to come.
What is a Canonical URL?
Thursday, January 14th, 2010We get asked this question all the time. . . what is “canonicalization” and how does it help/hurt my SEO efforts? Canonicalization is the process of deciding what the best URL is for your website. This process is important since it can effect everything from your rankings to the overall usability of your site. Linking also becomes problematic, as people may link to you in a certain format but your site may be set up a different way. The user will still get to your page but the issue can impact the link credit you’ll get by the engines, ultimately impacting your overall positioning/rankings.
Most people, for example, would consider these the same exact urls:
- www.mysite.com
- mysite.com/
- www.mysite.com/index.html
To the search engines, however, all of these URLs are different and in fact could offer different content on each of the pages, if they wanted to. This, as you can see, is problematic for both humans and search robots. Search engines deal with this issue by deciding for you what the most consistent and best use of URLs is for your site. They then use this in their search engine results. So, whatever you choose you can be sure that the engines will know it and decide for you what to show in their results. People, on the other hand, have grown accustomed to using “www” when searching for a website. So, from our perspective the best way to handle canonicalization is with using the “www” first in your URL string (first example above).
There is a great debate online about this since the “proper” way to build a site is without using “www” as a prefix (second example above). Technically speaking in fact, “www” is actually a sub-domain of your website. This debate falls on deaf ears, however, since the usability of a site is more important than being technically correct and people definitely use “www” when referencing a site. Our final argument in favor of using “www” in your URL string is based on the fact that people who want to talk, link or blog about your site will inevitable use “www” when talking about you. The link credit you could get when people link to you will be diminished if you have a different URL string than the one they use. Again, we side with the people and strongly urge the use of “www” when choosing your URL conventions.
So, for usability, linking, and being consistent with human behavior please use “www” when building your site and make your site canonically consistent and correct.
Bing Increases Market Share
Friday, January 8th, 2010Surprising to no-one except for me apparently, Bing.com has increased it’s share of the search engine market to 10.3%. Just a few short days ago, in fact, I predicted that Google’s market share was going to increase this year at the expense of Bing and Yahoo! Instead it appears that Bing is eating away at both Google and Yahoo’s share! Google still has a healthy 72% of the market and their market share has not dropped much, maybe a point or two. Still Bing’s increases have me wondering…why? Why is Bing so popular now? True, Bing.com’s ad campaign last year’s was brilliant and steered the engine in the proper direction but to see increases month after month is surprising. Google is still the engine that people use and, by and large, many online marketers do NOT use Bing.com for advertising purposes. However, with a 10% share, I believe that we all may need to rethink that strategy. We love Google but we also love the fact that Google may finally have some competition so that we can have some advertising alternatives for our clients. In this case, competition is healthy, very healthy, and I look forward to the battle ahead this coming year.
Bold Predictions in Online Marketing for 2010
Monday, January 4th, 2010Okay, so I’ll admit I was wrong about a few of the predictions I made last year. Yes, Google is still the King and Mobile Search has still not yet hit the big time. Still, I enter 2010 with a renewed passion for what we do and where our Industry is going. Many of the changes that were made last year and many that are coming only strengthened the case for building better websites. In 2010 the best sites that best meet the needs of their target markets are those that survive while spammy sites go by the way of the dinosaur. So, that said, below are my bold predictions in Online Marketing for 2010:
Link Builders Go Bye Bye – As a major algorithm cleanup, Google and other engines will drop or purge sites that artificially bought their way to top organic SEO rankings via buying links. Link building companies will start to become obsolete as link building for SEO becomes ineffective. The financial impact is felt as far away as India and the Philippines, where many of these link building companies were stationed.
Shady SEO Companies Go Bye Bye – The search engines will move away from “seo tactics” and instead rank sites based on their “quality.” Sites that best hit their target markets, judged by low bounce rate and audience engagement will be the sites that rank well across all platforms. Shady SEO companies that built their success based on “fooling the search engines” will be exposed and will eventually vanish from site. Good SEO companies that focus on all facets of a web site (web design, web development, web marketing) will become the new “go to” companies. The financial impact is also felt as far away as India and the Philippines, where many of the shady optimization companies were stationed.
Google Increases Market Share to 80% – In 2010, I predict Google will increase it’s market share from currently about 72% to 80% of the market. Their continued growth comes at the expense of both Yahoo! and Bing, where audience share will decline because Google (as a result of algorithm changes) will be providing it’s audience better search results.
Mobile Search – I know I’ve been saying it for years but this is finally the year when Mobile Search hits the big time. Already with staggering growth, it is shocking that mobile search is still not a major part of most people’s marketing mix. In 2010, I predict that mobile gets into the mainstream of all marketers alike, both global and locally-based.
Conversion Optimization Gets Its Due- Finally, conversion optimization will not be just for serious marketers but instead will be a tactic and a topic of discussion amongst everyone who markets online. Brought on by last year’s recession, the business of “improving your bottom line” just by tweaking your landing pages, your messages, etc. will get a serious look. Budgets for conversion optimization in 2010 will be allocated accordingly.
Change is Coming – Something, somewhere, someone is lurking around the corner waiting to capture the hearts and minds of Internet users much like Twitter and Facebook did in 2009. Whether it be a new social media site, a change in technology, or the way that we market ourselves online, one prediction we can count on each and every year is that there likely will be a major change to look forward to in the coming year.
Will any or all of these bold prediction turn out? Only time with tell. One thing for sure is that everyone, from peers to customers, are looking forward to a better year and more prosperous 2010.
