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 the ‘SEO’ Category
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.
How Google Personalization Will Change SEO
Thursday, December 24th, 2009Below is a list of ways that Google personalization is changing search engine optimization today:
• Everybody now sees different Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) based on their searching patterns making measuring a consistent ranking no longer possible.
• Content development simply for increased page count and link building no longer has as much influence on your site’s rank.
• People who visit their own sites are getting the wrong impression that their sites are ranking well in the SERPs and are stopping SEO services.
Other ways that Google personalization are changing optimization are listed below:
• People who visit their competitor’s sites are getting the wrong impression that their sites AREN’T ranking well in the SERPs and are blaming their SEO company.
• Search spam is starting to get filtered out as people, by and large, do not revisit spammy pages.
• Fresh content is becoming essential for rankings, as new pages stand out in someone’s personalized SERPs and are getting searchers to come back to your site. Social media content is now critical and is being done at increased levels.
Pay Per Click is also changing as a result of Google Personalization:
• PPC is becoming more popular as people find natural rankings too difficult to achieve and are abandoning it.
To be clear, Google personalization is a “game-changer” but it does not impact the most important aspect of Search Engine Optimization i.e. having a good website. Keep in mind that SEO never has nor ever will be just about your SERP ranking. Optimization is about improving your site so that it can perform better. Think about good usability, professional web design, and targeted on-point messaging, and you’ll see where Google is heading. With personalization everybody wins. Searchers get better, more relevant results and website owners that engage in search engine optimization will get better performing websites and thus better returns on their marketing investments.
To read more about Google personalization, please visit Google @ http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=54068
Personalized Search and SEO
Monday, December 21st, 2009Google’s personalized search has been around since 2005 but two weeks ago it was released to ALL Google searchers, whether they are logged into a Google account or not. This is a real game-changer and means that a searcher’s results will now vary from other searcher’s results (even if searching for the same terms). Your results will be dependent on your searching history, preferences, geo-location, IP address, and other factors. The goal for Google, of course, is increased relevancy for its users and with personalization they hit the mark. People that search for “jaguar the car”, for example, will be shown “jaguar the car” results instead of “jaguar the animal” results. Increased relevancy equates to better results; and better results equates to happier Google users.
Happier Google users, however, does not necessarily equate to happy search engine optimizers. In fact, personalization now drastically changes how we now must go about optimizing your website. Since there will no longer be a uniform way of tracking results (since ranking results will vary depending on the user), optimization tactics must now rely on building better websites instead of the handful of tricks like link buying that were used for the sole purposes of manipulating the search engines. While the practice of SEO is not dead, many of the practices of the trade like link buying will soon be rendered ineffective. Website optimization will belong to web marketers, web designers, and web developers not the hundreds of so-called SEO experts that cracked the Google algorithm and learned that the only way to the top was via buying links. I imagine a shake-up of sorts to come as former SEO people get out of the game and the Industry is given to professionals who understand the dynamics of building a good website and serving up an experience that meets the needs of your target market/audience.
Is SEO Dead?
Saturday, December 19th, 2009Three BIG announcements two weeks ago at the Googleplex has many wondering if the practice of “search engine optimization” is dead. We don’t think so but these changes will certainly impact the way you should go about optimizing your website.
- Real-time search – Google introduced real time which now pulls latest news stories from news feeds, blogs, and Twitter posts and lists these stories alongside your regular search results. How this impacts SEO: Real time indicates a swing that puts Social Media into the forefront. Your optimization efforts must now 100 percent include social media strategies or you’ll be missing the boat.
- Google Caffeine – Google will become much faster once they launch their latest update, called appropriately enough the Google “Caffeine” update. Sites that load quickly will place higher more often than not than sites that don’t. In addition to speed, this update will level the playing field by reducing the impact of your inbound links (since Google obviously knows that optimizers have literally been buying their way to the top) and will instead focus on good sites with good quality content. How this impacts SEO: Caffeine will ensure that sites that meet the needs of their target markets (judged by low bounce rates and audience engagement) will rank higher than those that don’t. This update will dramatically impact how we go about optimizing as more focus will be spent on web design, development, and content. Less focus will be made on tactics that optimizers have used for years such as link buying, link baiting, content development for the sole purpose of adding page counts. Black hat techniques will be rendered ineffective by this update clearing the way for legitimate websites to start ranking well on their own merits.
- Google Personalization – Google is now showing different results to different users, meaning your search results will likely be very different from my search results. Personalization has been around for years but now you get personalized results whether or not you are logged in to a Google account. How this impacts SEO: This spells the end of the road for the ranking report since rankings will vary based on geo-location, IP address, search history, etc. Instead, optimizers must now focus on creating sites that work. Optimizers that spend more time creating a better site are those that will find consistently high rankings regardless of personalization.
While SEO is absolutely not dead, some of the questionable practices that were created to give artificially high results for clients is finally gone (hurray!). The day has come where online marketers absolutely get to be online marketers. Optimizers that only know “how-to-fool” the search engines will soon be exposed and left for Interactive Agencies and online marketers that understand…marketing.
Google’s Real-Time Search Goes Live
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009As many of the readers of my blog posts will attest, I’ve been talking about real-time search for a while now. While Bing’s version is still in beta (www.bing.com/twitter), Google’s was launched yesterday. Google’s version of real-time is seamlessly integrated into your regular search results and features the latest news from blogs, newsposts and Twiiter updates. When you enter popular search terms into Google, your search engine results page (SERP) will include a “Latest results for” section that showcases a constantly updating window of real-time results usually about halfway down the page. To website owners, there isn’t any clearer indication that you will now need both a social media marketing strategy and a search engine marketing strategy if you want to compete effectively online. The online world is changing rapidly and Google’s real-time is further proof of it. If you need any help getting your online program in sync with the next wave of the web, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Google Wakes Up!
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009Maybe the name signifies a true wake up call but on August 10th, 2009 Google announced it will be launching changes to it’s search engine algorithm with it’s soon-to-launch “Caffeine” update. This update will be geared to compete more effectively with Social Media sites that provide “real-time search”, an important feature already employed at effectively Twitter and currently in-the-works at Facebook. Real-time search will allow searchers to obtain information as it happens, something the major search engines have always been very ineffective at providing. The true goal of the “Caffeine” update is to indexing content faster, something Google already does fairly quickly. According to the Google Webmaster Central Team, this update is “the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions”. Google is still testing the “Caffeine” update but look for it to roll out soon.
On another note, Google is now randomly experimenting with “bread crumbs” in their search engine results pages (SERPS). Bread crumbs, just like on e-commerce sites, provide links that help users know exactly what page they are on and gives them an ability to find their way back home. These are showing up randomly in the SERPS but look for a more aggressive roll out in the near future. This is an exciting feature set that will provide extra value to searchers. Way to go Google on this one!
Search Optimization: A New Look At Search Engine Optimization
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009Consider for a minute that “search engine optimization” should rightfully start being called “search optimization” and you’ll see where this thing is headed. In fact, the way we view and use search in our lives is rapidly starting to change. For example, new advances from the major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing.com are not only speeding up the delivery of our results but providing a whole lot of new ways to view them. Soon-to-launch “real-time search” has been a mainstay on Twitter but is now being opened up on sites like Facebook to mobile search brought on by major advances in mobile technology like 3G and 4G, Many of us could not have predicted years ago that these would be the latest trends that are shaping the new search paradigm:
- Real-Time Search – How important is it to the engines that searchers be able to get results in real-time? So much so that each have inked deals with the social media sites to integrate their results into theirs. For a preview of what’s likely to come, check out www.bing.com/twitter. To get to real-time search, you’ll click the “Show options” link above the search results. Then you’ll see a “latest” option
- Search By Voice – Already integrated as an iPhone app, searchers talk into their phones and (usually) get relevant results back.
- Search By Location – Search for products in stock near you, for example ,
- Search By Site – Take or upload pictures and the engines will try to recognize the product, bar code, landmark etc. and provide relevant results for you.
A new decade is coming and along with it new search possibilities.
If you’d like to know how you can prepare yourself for these upcoming changes, feel free to contact me ron@sdinteractive.com.
Google Caffeine: What It May Mean To You
Monday, December 7th, 2009Google Caffeine, the “Next Generation” Search Engine from Google is coming soon. With it comes faster speeds for searchers but if you own a website do expect a likely change in your rankings to occur and perhaps a significant change to the way you currently optimize your website. While many of us were able to preview the “overhauled” engine this summer during beta, the test left us with many more questions than answers. Surely we knew that this new Google algorithm would prefer sites that loaded quickly but what about the other factors that have been a staple of website optimization for the past five years, or so? While we have still questions, we believe that there will be some major changes with this update that will once again level the playing field for everyone competing in this space. Below are some thoughts to the way the Google Caffeine update will change the SEO landscape for you:
- Site speed: They call it Google “Caffeine” for a reason. Sites that are fast and load quickly will tend to rank higher than those that don’t.
- More emphasis on on-page factors: Because every yahoo on the planet went and bought their way to the top by purchasing links, this new update will reward the small percent of people that played it straight. This update will favor factors such as good page design, proper meta tags, keyword density, low bounce rates, etc. Pages with broken links, links to bad neighborhoods, and poor page quality will not rank high any longer.
- Quality unique content: This, ultimately, will be the most important ingredient of a page and is another reason why on-page blogging should be at the top of everyone’s weekly to-do-lists.
- Number of social bookmarks: A page eventually will rank on its own merits by the number of social bookmarks it receives. There is going to be an increasing importance on social networking and lets say, how many tweets or del-icio-us votes a certain page gets before it can rank highly on Google.
A final word: It’s only speculation but the word on the street is that Google will finally be placing less importance on linking with the Google Caffeine update. Google is none to happy with the inequities that linking has had on their search engine results. Link building is a multi-billion dollar Industry and has literally changed the optimization Industry overnight. While Google has long since stated their displeasure for link buying, link buyers have generally enjoyed better rankings than those that don’t. ..that is hopefully until now.
Google Caffeine is supposed to launch sometime after the holidays. In the past, Google made updates to their algorithms during the holidays and many webmasters who depend on their rankings were impacted greatly. We will all be curious to see how this update will change the game plan for millions of website owners and search engine marketers alike.
If you witness anything strange with your results, please feel free to call us at 619-270-8155 to discuss. Until then, happy holidays and good luck to all!
Online Marketing Predictions for 2009
Thursday, December 4th, 2008As is my annual tradition, below please find my predictions for the Online Marketing space in 2009.
1) SEO gets Uber Competitive- In a down economy, the best bet online is still a FREE click. Next year, I predict an onslaught of companies trying to competitively position themselves for these free clicks. Expect a frenzy of activity, lots of new entrants, and the utilization of underhanded, cut-throat, and even black-hat tactics. Everyone will be vying for top rankings in a very limited marketing space (where only the top ten results matter) and I anticipate they will be doing anything they can to make it happen. Expect a lot of both the good and bad here from companies next year but know for sure that people are coming after your coveted rankings and will be spending considerable time, effort, and resource to get there.
2) “Super-Sized” Websites: As people truly begin to start ”optimizing”, you will see sites grow in terms of their size, by leaps and bounds. Twenty page websites, once the norm, will now be insufficient and generally unable to rank well in Google. In 2009, I predict that we will start to witness the birth of the “super-sized” website. Anyone trying to compete effectively online will absolutely need to have a GIANT website with thousands of pages ready, willing and able to be indexed on the web. In SEO, size does matter and next year large sites will become the standard that all participants in the game will need to have, if they are to survive.
3) A Boon for Content Developers: If you are a copywriter (or any maker of content for that matter), you will be rewarded handsomely in 2009. You know the cliche’ but content really will be Queen, King, and everything else Regal next year. Who do you suppose is going to help these websites grow from 20 to 1000 pages?
4) The Continued Growth of Social Media- There are currently no standard measurement tools and I truly think nobody knows yet how to best do it but we do know for sure that your prospective customers are spending an enormous amount of time social networking on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tagged, Digg, StumbleUpon, Squiddo, de.licio.us, and MySpace. As these sites continue to grow in popularity, the Industry will find a better way to market and standardize the practice in 2009, allowing for ALL online marketers to participate in Social Media Marketing with the same ease that they are currently able to do with search.
5) On-Going Growth of Industry- The online marketing Industry is in great shape. Next year, we will see the proliferation of advertising dollars funnel from traditional media like TV, Radio, and Print to Online. We will start to see more client experiment with Ad Networks, Banner Ads, Social Media Marketing, Online PR, and Link Building (in additional to on-going efforts in search engine marketing as noted above).
6) Conversion Optimization Rules - If ”conversion optimization” seems like a foreign term, you’ll no doubt be hearing a ton about it in 2009. Conversion Optimization in it’s simplest form is the practice of improving your conversion rate by providing more ”relevant” experiences to your visitors through behavioral testing and landing page optimization. Some companies like www.Magnify360.com, however, have technologies that can supercharge the typical A/B, Multivariate testing process that can take most firms years to show result. Conversion Optimization will come into the vernacular in 2009 as conversion rates continue to slide for most companies.
7) Goodbye Brittney??? If you hadn’t heard it yet, Brittney Spears was the #1 searched term in 2008, winning the title for a second year in a row. Sadly, in an election year, (his election year) Barrack Obama could only pull #3. This year…Someone will finally supplant Brittney Spears as the topped searched term in 2009. Maybe its wishful thinking but I have got to believe that something more worthwhile will take the crown in 2009. Somebody. Anybody. Please.
