Category: Search Engine Marketing

Preparing for the Future of Google Search

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In its never-ending quest to provide value to its end-users, Google is always looking for new and improved ways to evaluate relevance. Much has been said about the importance of website content, usability and backlinking. Where will Google turn its attentions to next and how could your search engine optimization initiatives prepare you for that new direction?

Google has resolved the issue of relevance by supplementing it to a degree with what is referred to as “popularity,” but what could also be called ‘authority.’

The great importance Google has placed on quality  inbound links, its foray into social networking, and the changes it has made to the newly named local business search tool Google Places, provide insight into the direction the search engine is likely to take in the near future.

In a nutshell, it could be described in the phrase “power to the people.” Using online reviews acquired from various social media and online marketing and advertising sites where consumers are able to post them, such as Google Places, Google may add an element to it ranking algorithm that factors in such reviews.  This seems to me like the logical next step.  Establishing your website’s authority ( and reputation) in the eyes of the buying public through online reviews and publications needs to be a consideration in organic SEO planning.

The first order of business, especially if you have a “local” brick & Mortar,  is to set up a Google Places account and encourage every single one of your customers to submit a review to establish your rating score. Next, use your social media accounts to engage customers in a conversation about your company and what you offer. Open a YouTube channel (yes, Google owns them too) and start placing fun and informative videos there that encourage users to rate them. Pitch a story to an online journalist and try to get them to write about you.

The point is to get others to start talking about you and rating you in a public forum. Consider it a new form of off-page search engine optimization designed to support other off-site and on-site initiatives that increase your popularity and authority in the eyes of Google. By quantifying consumer experiences in this way, Google is able to enhance user satisfaction by delivering relevant results based on input from its users.

I’m really interested in the new directions search is taking. It has made me think hard about how to approach search engine optimization so that given the ever-changing environment there is long-term value that can be counted on, providing on-going return-on-investment and the ability to build on a well-established foundation.

Why Search Engine Marketing is a Strategy

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If you consider that a strategy is a series of actions designed to obtain a specific goal or result then you can begin to appreciate why search engine optimization and paid search campaigns are part of a strategy and not a one-time initiative.

The process of developing an effective optimization strategy is equivalent to making a good business plan. You look to see where you are now, decide where you think you can realistically be in a year, 2 years and 5 years, and then develop the plan that is approached in phases according to the budgets you have set aside for its execution.

Starting with a comprehensive keyword research and analysis, you select the keywords and phrases believed to attract your targeted audience groups to become the focus of your campaign. A benchmark report serves to show you where you are ranking for those terms now and will be used again to measure your future success.

It is also important to understand the variables that may affect your current and future ranking results. These include items that have to do with your website, such as website architecture, the effectiveness of your web copy and images, design, title tags and meta data, calls-to-action and a number of other factors, as well as off-site factors such as other websites your web pages may be showing up on and what’s being said about your company over the internet on social networking, news, blogs, and review sites.

With website tracking and analysis software in place (generally Google Analytics is the best start), you have what you need to develop the phases of your strategy that will impact both short-term and long-term results. Google and the other leading search engines are looking for a steady, positive trend. Nothing gets accomplished overnight. Every positive step you take toward providing relevant, highly focused web content and establishing your online presence as an authority for the products and services you offer, as well as the areas you serve if you are a local provider, builds your “reputation” and solidifies your clout in the “eyes” of the search engines.

Before you engage in any search engine optimization or paid placement initiative, you will be best served by sitting down with an optimization professional who can clarify for you what needs to be done so you can achieve and maintain positive search engine results.  Select your SEO vendor wisely.  Learn about their process and capabilities, get references and request sample results of work that meet your expectations.

Facebook’s Advertising Model and You

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Since Facebook launched in 2004 it has expanded its usership to a whopping 500 million plus users. Reuniting old friends and family, as well as offering opportunities to market your brand, more small business owners are taking advantage of Facebook’s advertising model to spread the word about their company.

Comparable to Google Adwords, SEO and marketing experts believe the Facebook model is one of the first of its kind  with the potential to give Google Adwords a run for their money.

So how does the Facebook advertising model work?

Business owners with an online presence can set up a Facebook account and establish a  page for your business. At the top of the page is a “Like” button, which can also be embedded on your online site to draw more users to your Facebook page.

On your Facebook landing page you are offered the option to promote the page with an ad. Clicking on the link, you are also given the ability to advertise your website instead of your Facebook business page. After uploading an eye-catching, relevant image, you are then taken to a page allowing you to choose your advertising demographic. Based on your business model and location, you can strategically target your ideal audience.  This feature is incredibly cool and useful as you see your ads potential reach adjust as you edit the demographic selection criteria.

Considering your personal advertising budget, you can choose a daily amount to spend and a schedule of times you want your ad to run. A bit of careful research on times your targeted demographic uses Facebook could potentially save you a lot of money, while still reaching your target audience. For example, if you were targeting college students, later evenings when they were studying or procrastinating by posting to their Facebook wall, an ad running during that strategic time would potentially reach your target audience more effectively.

Your ad appears only on Facebook currently. When compared to the present rival advertising model offered by Google Adwords, the potential to reach as large an audience seems to be lacking since Google Adwords tend to appear all over the Internet.

On the other hand, there are other benefits to the Facebook model that Google doesn’t offer. For example, through creating a fan page your target audience can  subscribe and “Like,” as well as interact with your company and its representatives, you have the opportunity of receiving direct feedback from your target audience. You can also provide regular updates directly, and everyone in your network will have access to them immediately, keeping them in the know about your brand.

Taking advantage of social media sites like Facebook to market your business may seem like a lot of work, especially if you are new to the concept. It’s a competitive market that requires a bit of personal interaction on a regular basis to keep people interested. In the interim, as more companies, both big and small, begin using social media to their advantage, getting in on the action now will help you get established long before the trend shifts to accommodate the next big thing.

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.

Keyword Stuffing Explained

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I recently received a request from a reader to clarify exactly what “keyword stuffing” is.

Basically, keyword stuffing is predominantly a black hat seo technique meant to trick (or “influence”) the search engines into indexing a web page for more terms then are relevant to the content found on the page.

‘Keyword stuffing’ is evident when a laundry list of terms appears in the title tag and meta tags.

Worst offenders may include terms that are often searched in the engines yet have nothing at all to do with the page or even site.

If your company sells several things, as most do, all of the terms related to them should not be mentioned in the title tag or stuffed into the meta tags on each page. They should not be stuffed into the web page copy either for that matter.

(For those of you who have no idea what a meta keywords tag is, it is an element of your web page that is used by the web developer to provide more information to the search engines about your web page. It looks like this:  <meta name = “keywords” content=“key word phrase” />)

Because of the abuse of this tag Google no longer even relies on the information placed here to determine relevance.

There are many variations on this kind of keyword deception. Invisible text is another black hat seo technique used to improve relevance by increasing keyword density or the number of keywords on the page in relation to all the text on the page. The keywords are placed on the web page using the same color as the page’s background so that they cannot be seen by people but they will be scanned by the search engine spiders.

Search Engines have matured enough to be wise to most black hat tactics and the penalties for engaging in illegitimate search engine optimization practices are pretty steep. They may include a total ban of the offender’s web pages from the engine.

The best practice is to play by the rules. Keep your web page content highly focused. If you sell many types of products create a product group landing page and then a separate landing page for each product type.

Help the search engines to index and retrieve your web pages by making their job easy.

To learn more about keywords and ranking see my blog post Effective SEO Tip When Looking to Rank for Additional Key Word Phrases.