Tag: search engines

Search Engines Remain Top Source for Local Business Information

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Momentum Monday

With all the ways available to people to learn about local businesses, search engines on the internet are still the most popular.

According to a January, 2011 national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, produced in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Where People Get Information About Restaurants and Other Local Businesses, “The internet is the source that people most rely on for material about the local business scene and search engines are particularly valued. Newspapers and word of mouth also rank high as sources.”

The survey interviewed 1,087 respondents by phone in either English or Spanish. Among the 60% of respondents who get information about local businesses, they are likely to be tech-users with a college education who earn upwards of $75,000 a year, use the internet, and own a cell phone. They also tend to be “news junkies,” as the survey identifies them, who use their cell phones to search news and information about local businesses. The sources they use to get information about local businesses include (page 11):

Internet: 47% say some kind of online source is the one they most rely upon.
Newspaper: 30% say they most rely on newspaper material either in printed form or the website of their local newspaper for local business informationWord of mouth: 22% say they rely on other people most of all for news and information about local businesses
Local TV: 8% say they rely on TV for news about local businesses – either broadcasts or the stations’ websites
Local radio: 5% of adults say they rely on local radio

 

So what does this mean for local business owners? Building an online presence – including your website, social media sites, and other topical specialty sites – that ranks well in search engines for the key terms relevant to what you offer is critical to your on-going marketing for new business development and growth potential. The objective is to create compelling, internet searchable content so you are visible online to your targeted buyers whether they use their computer, mobile phone, or tablet to search for local businesses.

Social Media Counts Towards SEO

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The rapid growth in popularity of social media has caught the attention of the major search engines like Google and Bing. In October 2009, Google Social Search was launched, which delivers results for the terms you searched from within your online social circle. By October, Bing implemented a new feature that delivers ‘Liked by Your Friends’ in Facebook information along with the search results. Many website owners interested in achieving page one rankings in the major search engines for the terms important to them wondered if their popularity on the social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others could or would influence their rankings.

Well as it turns out, it does to some degree. In a recent interview with search engine guru Danny Sullivan, quoted here at seomoz.org, a Bing representative stated the search engine does “look at the Social Authority of a user.

Tweets from more authoritative people will flow to the top when best match relevancy is used.” Google uses what it terms ‘Author Authority’ for both organic and news rankings. Google also looks to see how many people share a news article, much the same way Twitter ranks the top re-tweeted Tweets and Tweet topics. Google’s Author Authority and Bing’s Social Authority rank content according to their proprietary ‘authority’ scores. Google points out, however, that Author Authority differs from and is separate from PageRank, which impacts where on the search results pages a web page may be listed.

I highly recommend you read the post at seomoz.org for the ideas the author presents. Concerning search engine optimizing the social media content you produce, as always you want to include the keywords around which you are building your authority. You’ll want to keep your titles brief, containing only one or two keywords, so that the search engines can easily find your content.

Build your Followers by providing important content that is interesting to them. Reach out to new Followers both online and offline. Build a community among other “authoritative authors” who also write about the same subjects as you. And by all means, keep your social media sites, as well as your website, updated regularly with fresh, relevant and interesting content that makes readers want to share it with others.

Effects of Google’s “Reasonable Surfer” Patent

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In a recent post by Eric Enge for Search Engine Land™ entitled SEO Implications Of Google’s “Reasonable Surfer” Patent, Eric explains that Google’s newly patented link analysis technology “basically states that all links on a page do not have to carry (or pass) the same weight. The concept is that the value a link should pass to a target page will be largely based on the probability that a user would click on it.”

Enge goes on to explain that the technology’s qualitative analysis determines such things as:

  • “Links to unrelated content are highly unlikely to be clicked
  • Specific types of content, such as “about us” or “privacy” pages, may be more—or less—likely to get clicked, depending on context
  • Location of the link on the page (above the fold should get more weight than below the fold)
  • Emphasis to make links more prominent, such as changing size or color, should add weight”

The presentation, placement and emphasis of links on your web pages are more significant now than ever before.

The effect on a website owner of Google’s continued technological improvements to its ranking and analysis systems is greater accountability.

Google wants you to think about everything you put on your web pages and ensure that it is highly relevant and valuable to the end-user. If considered elements your web pages are lacking, your total ranking score will be affected.

As Enge points out  “the concept of how a reasonable surfer would behave appears to have a lot of merit, and the search engines are investing everything they can in better ranking systems and ones that reduce the impact of spam.”

Another important consideration he expresses is that “basic usability guidelines still apply. Understanding how a user sees your site and their behavior when they interact with it has always made sense. Now consider the idea that this can [not only] influence the ranking of a given page, but also the value of the links it provides to other web pages.”

Search engine optimization is more important now than ever.

Every aspect of your website, from site architecture and content to external linking must be carefully, thoughtfully and strategically planned.

Participation in the search engines, particularly Google, is like an on-going entrance audition. The adjudicators hold a score card of evolving criteria upon which you are being constantly judged. If you want to “get in” and “stay in,” you’d better make sure you aren’t lacking in any way.

Why give them a reason to say “no.”

For more technical information about the effects of Google’s new patented technology read Google’s Reasonable Surfer: How the Value of a Link May Differ Based upon Link and Document Features and User Data.