Posts Tagged ‘SERP’

Google Instant and Its Affects on SEO

Monday, September 13th, 2010

Technology is constantly moving forward and many users are searching for a new way to find what they want on the internet faster. Google Instant is designed to show results as you type. Google is pushing the limits of current technology to gain realistic and rational search results for users. One of the main results of Google Instant is the fact that a user, like you, can get the search results at a much faster pace. In some instances, a user does not even have to finish typing in the key phrase or term and press the search button. This concept helps users formulate better search phrases and terms while they are typing.

Google Instant Search, Hotels

With Google Instant becoming more popular, users now have the option to adapt their search while typing until they gain the results that match exactly what they have been seeking. Gaining faster search results can help any user even if they do not know exactly what they are searching for. In the past, users had to keep typing in different search phrases and terms to find exactly what they were looking for. It was a hit and miss adventure. With Google Instant, the search prediction is shown in grey text within the search box, so the user will be able to stop typing as soon as he or she sees what they want. Now everyone is happy and searching has just gotten better.

Should SEO’s Be Worried?

The answer is NO! SEO’s should not be concerned or worried about Google Instant. In fact, this can only help. SEO will continue to evolve and grow as technology changes. This is just another stage in evolution that will help SEO users gain more traffic to their websites. Think about this concept for a moment and realize that this has made searching for everyone a lot less stressful. There is no algorithm change to worry about and it is user friendly with similarities to Facebook Typeahead Search.

As long as users are using search engines to look up information online, content on websites will need to be optimized. Therefore, the use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will always be around. Having well written and developed content will actually benefit a user of SEO for Google Instant. Having good SEOs that adapt to any changes in searcher behavior will only benefit you with Google Instant. Therefore, there is no need to be concerned about the way Google Instant has changed the way users search for information over the internet. Those who adapt will flourish and those who do not will fall behind. Learning more about Google Instant can only help.

Chase and Sanborn Instant Coffee

Probable Impacts

What are the probable impacts that will come into play with this new way of searching? SEOs will continue the way they always have with great content that has been developed with the user in mind. Google may influence traffic as the behavior of searching changes by users. The time it takes to search for information will reduce. As users become more focused on evaluating results as they type, Google Instant may make ranking above the fold more important. Targeted pay-per-click ads will continue to show as they normally do. There will more than likely be more locally targeted ads for a user’s geographical area, and ads will continuously change as users continue their search for what they are looking for. For now, SEOs are moving forward and strong as technology continues to advance and move forward towards the future.

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6 Ways Online Marketing is Like Marriage

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Relationship Marketing

Keeping a marriage going, or any long term emotional relationship, can be a major undertaking, full of trial and error. In that sense, a marriage isn’t unlike an online marketing approach.

While you probably don’t do “market research” on your spouse before getting married, you do hopefully spend some time getting to know them and getting a feel for what they’re about.

It’s kind of like testing the waters for a marketing push. After doing some research on the various platforms you’d like to use and the messages you want to send out, you take the plunge (tie the knot).

Taking the Plunge

But there’s plenty more that goes into a marriage that can be likened to your online marketing.

Step 1: Have completely open and fair communication.

Communicate

Just like you would with a spouse, to make an online marketing campaign flourish, you’ll need to not just be broadcasting your point of view (message), but also spend a lot of time listening and responding.

Ask yourself what people are saying about your industry and your company. What are they saying about your competitors?

Always keep your communication with your audience professional, but make it personable too.

You wouldn’t give your husband or wife a textbook answer about how your day went, and you shouldn’t with someone interested in your company.

Remember: communication isn’t a one-way street. Listen more than you preach, and you’ll do just fine.

Step 2: Build trust.

Build Trust

Trust usually starts with step number one – communication. If you say you’ll do something for client or a consumer or your spouse, stick to your word.

Relationships will not work if one party doesn’t trust the other, so handle your marketing with care. Don’t over-promise and under-deliver, or you’ll never see that consumer again.

Trust and communication go hand in hand, so with every message you publish and every response you make, be sure you’re being completely forthcoming.

Step 3: Keep it fresh.

Keep it fresh

Relationships will go stale if efforts aren’t made to inject fresh ideas and activities now and then.

The same is very true for online marketing and SEO. We know content is king, but FRESH content is even more important.

Whether you use just a website, have a blog, or use Twitter and StumbleUpon – keep your content and your online marketing fresh.

That’s wonderful that you wrote a powerful blog post, or posted a funny Tweet that got retweeted multiple times. Just like that trip you took for your honeymoon was a great experience, right?

But you don’t want years and years to pass by before you and your spouse get away together again, and you shouldn’t let weeks and weeks pass by before you freshen up your website, blog or Twitter account.

Step 4: Have patience.

Have patience

Whether you’re married or not, you probably realize that patience is a *must* to make any relationship last.

Inevitably your spouse will do something that will drive you up the wall, but if you have patience, you can bite your tongue and wait for them to stop.

Patience is important with online marketing as well. Search engine optimization experts always caution against expecting results too quickly on the SERPs because these things simply take time.

Unless you opt to pay for your Twitter followers or you’re already famous, it will take some time to build up a following. Have patience, engage the people you follow and who follow you, and the people will come.

Step 5: Acceptance from friends and family.

Acceptance

This might be a stretch, but inbound links to your site/blog are similar to your friends and family accepting your spouse.

Marriages run a lot more smoothly if your spouse has positive relationships with the other people in your life.

By the same token, getting inbound links to your content (message) is a way the community will pass judgment and recommend what you’re saying.

Links to your site are incredibly important for SEO, but they can also give you an idea of what messages you have are being digested by your audience. If list-based blog posts are what tend to get the most recognition, then perhaps that is what you should focus on!

Step 6: Common interests.

Common interests

Blah blah blah…opposites attract, right? Well I don’t think you’ll find a couple that has been married for 50 years that doesn’t have some similar interests.

There *must* be something that you mutually agree on and enjoy doing for the relationship to go any further.

For an online marketing campaign, that simply means framing your messages so that your intended audience will be receptive.

If you’re in the flower business, don’t tweet a link about how to get 1000s of followers every week and expect to boost business.

In a client/business relationship, the mutual interest should be getting your client the exposure/links/media mentions/business they’re paying you for.

Relationships, like online marketing, can be a fickle thing. One moment everything is perfect, and the next you forgot the oranges and have an upset spouse on your hands.

The same is true for online marketing. One day you’re riding high on the first page of Google for your targeted keywords, and the next Google changes their algorithms and how they calculate page rank.

Just remember to have patience, and continue to keep it fresh!

By: Zack S.

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Google Pathways: Following Google’s Beaten Path on SERPs

Friday, May 1st, 2009

The other day it was brought to my attention that Google queries for certain keywords will give you some strange, “organic” results.

I haven’t been able to find any information about this particular problem, and I wondered if anyone else had run into the same thing.

In our SEO office, we have a sales team that runs through a great presentation online with potential clients. Part of the presentation includes examples of key words that our clients have ranked very well with.

As such, our sales team runs through the same Google queries multiple times a day while on the phone, talking the client through the search on the phone as well. It seems now that we are seeing a well-worn path through the Google search universe, and unrelated key words are turning up in the search results.

Try it for yourselves. Search for “Alabama metal roofing” on Google and see if you don’t get “see results for ‘financial statement software’” and “Also see ‘direct marketing leads’”. If you don’t – that’s great! But we’ve tested this on multiple computers on multiple IPs throughout the city and are finding the same results.

Before anyone asks, yes – we tried this both signed in AND out of our Google accounts.

Another pre-emptive: as far as I can tell, this isn’t Google’s mid-page See results that was first reported in 2005. At least with that, the suggested results were related search query. What we’re running into are completely unrelated search results being mixed.

You can find a video with a similar example here, but it’s still not quite what we seem to be dealing with. They included an update in 2007 to the original post with a link to “Google Difficult Words”, but I don’t think “direct marketing leads” qualifies as difficult.

This has moved beyond Google trying to guess what you meant with your search query or helping you understand a difficult word.

It seems that Google is trying to anticipate the user’s next move by giving its predicted results for the upcoming search. Our sales team has been going from “Alabama metal roofing” to “financial statement software” to “direct marketing leads” as examples for our clients.

So what’s the problem?

Well the problem is that this “pathway” is giving the end user some very non-organic search results. Just because you’re searching for Alabama metal roofing does not mean you’re interested in direct marketing leads. These are unrelated terms!

The same problem exists if you run a search for “direct marketing leads”. You’ll come across Google’s suggested results for “financial statement software”. Strangely, we haven’t had the problem with just a search for “financial statement software”.

We had a discussion about this in the office, and decided the most recent Google algorithm change turned the search engine in a large lawn of sorts. Each potential search query represented a point in the lawn, and if a certain pathway was taken frequently enough (like first searching “Alabama metal roofing” and then “financial statement software”), a pathway could be formed.

Search engine algorithms are essentially mathematical formulas designed to figure out what the end user is looking for, so it’s no stretch of the imagination that Google is now actively monitoring search patterns and attempting to offer up search results for a search that hasn’t even been performed yet. Hmm, pre-emptive, anticipatory actions based on things that haven’t happened yet…

Did anyone watch Tom Cruise in Minority Report? This doesn’t bode well…

By: Zack S.

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