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Google Instant Not Making the Splash Some Said It Would

October 5, 2010 By admin

With the rollout of the new Google Instant feature last month, some search engine marketers wondered aloud if this spelled the end of SEO…every time Google announces something, there are always some people who may take it more seriously than it really is.

It’s a well known fact that companies and others announce news with such fanfare that it makes unsuspecting people very anxious when in reality it’s just a blip on the radar screen. Google is no different in how it announces events at the company.

News that’s not really that significant is made to appear so and vice versa.

Well that certainly is the case with Google Instant – the new feature that displays search results as you’re typing in a search. Many SEOs thought this would spell doom for long-tail keywords.

But with some time and research by our friends over at SEOMoz, that isn’t really happening. If there have been any changes in long-tail keyword traffic, it’s been very minimal.

The Conductor Blog for instance analyzed 880,000 search visits for ten high-traffic sites in different industries and came up with the following data…very little impact as you can tell. The slight increase in long-tail keyword traffic would seem to go against what some have been saying.

Conductor Analysis of 880,000 Searches

Conductor Analysis of 880,000 Searches

Another set of research by MEC backs Conductor’s results up. As you can see, there’s not much if any difference in long-tail traffic.

MEC Analysis of Different Keyword Searches

MEC Analysis of Different Keyword Searches

In fact, this has generally been the case with Google’s updates according to veteran SEO Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz. What initially may seem as a dramatic shift usually turns out to only be a minor tweak web marketers need to make to their strategies (i.e. personalization, local search, etc.)

Really the only updates that make a big difference are barely mentioned by the company…the 2003 Florida Update and Google Sandbox are a couple that come to mind.

And while there have been some minor adjustments, search engine marketing has fundamentally stayed pretty consistent since 2002 according to Rand. At its core, SEO involves the four following things:

1.       Make pages accessible

2.       Target keywords searchers use on those pages

3.       Create content visitors will find useful and valuable

4.       Earn editorial links from good sources

Next time there’s a big announcement like Google Instant or Caffeine, Rand suggests you ask yourself if any of these 4 elements have changed. If not, then the update is probably not a big deal and easily manageable.

Filed Under: Forum Watch, Online Marketing, SEO Technology, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , ,

New Instant Search from Google Leaves Many Marketers Scratching their Heads

September 16, 2010 By admin

Last week, I began noticing a difference in what happens when doing a search on Google. As I was typing in the keyword phrase, Google automatically started showing me results and suggestions on what I was looking for. As has been the case for awhile, Google does provide suggestions as you type in a search phrase.

But with this new instant results feature that tries to predict what someone is looking for, some have postulated that the SEO craft is now totally dead. Others say instant search isn’t a big deal. The question remains though…what do we do about it?

While some are buzzing around fretting about how SEO is now a thing of the past, Google has stated publicly that they have made no changes to their algorithm. Really, the instant search feature is more of a browser-type feature that speeds things up. From an SEO perspective, it really shouldn’t change much of the mechanics of what you do.

Since this change has just been rolled out, it will be awhile before we know how it affects user behavior.

So in the mean time, you may want to begin researching how these instant results affect your audience’s intent according to Damien Bianchi over at Search Engine Land.

Damien argues that searchers in the beginning stages of the buying cycle could easily be distracted with instant results.  Those who know what they’re trying to find are less likely to be distracted by instant results and Google’s suggestions.

To approach this problem, Damien suggests webmasters create a matrix of audience segments…he suggests “focused users” and “early users.” Make a list of your preferred landing pages and keywords for each and create a baseline ranking and traffic report and monitor it for major fluctuations.

Chances are, you will see a drop in the “early users” segment Damien says.

At this point, you will see which keyword phrases are not performing and be able to create a plan of action to address the problem.

Of course Damien is just one view out of many out there regarding Google Instant Search.

BTW – Personally, I find this new feature very annoying. If you’re in the same boat, there’s fortunately a way you can turn it off. Simply click “Search Settings” at the top right of the Google homepage and then scroll near the bottom where you will see a box for Google Instant. You can adjust the setting there.

And check back with us over the next few weeks as we see how this new feature from Google affects optimizing websites for the search engines.

Filed Under: Forum Watch, SEO Technology, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , ,

Keywords in My Domain Name – Will it give Me a Rankings Boost?

September 7, 2010 By admin

One common question from aspiring webmasters and SEOs is whether you can benefit from having keywords in your URL. Does Google place a premium on websites who do somehow incorporate keywords into their domain names?

I’m afraid to say no one can answer that question beyond a reasonable doubt. Some websites seem to benefit from it more than others.

A recent Search Engine Roundtable post discusses this issue with two extremes – one saying they don’t matter at all and the other saying they’re quite the necessity.

A lot of the answer to this question depends on how competitive your keywords are…if you’re in a highly competitive industry, you’re not likely to see much of a boost from having keywords in your URL. Take our URL for example – having SEO in there may help some but we’re certainly not depending on the URL to bring us high rankings.

As we’ve discussed before, Google’s algorithm consists of many different elements that are each weighted differently.

So the best advice and way to think about keywords in the URL – don’t worry too much about it!

That’s right, work on building content, links and a crawlable architecture that’s easily indexed by the search engines. Over time, this is what builds sustainable search engine rankings, not just some keywords in a URL.

They can give you a slight edge but it just depends. The better way is to choose a URL that you want because it’s going to be with you for a very long time.  Besides, those particular keywords may cease to be relevant in the future.

Filed Under: Forum Watch, SEO Technology, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , ,

Webinar Provides Great Tips on Optimizing Landing Pages

August 23, 2010 By admin

Recently, I took the time to watch a webinar hosted by Marketing Experiments on optimizing landing pages. By landing pages, we mean any page meant to motivate someone to take action – no matter if that’s clicking a “buy” button, downloading a newsletter or filing out a contact form.

By evaluating different metrics and experimenting with different layouts, Marketing Experiments’ webinar outlined how you can drive much higher conversion rates.

It’s not about marketing intuition or a list of best practices…successfully driving higher conversion rates with landing pages is more about a framework or methodology. Think about it more from a sequence of thought perspective rather than mere optimization of words or images. In your reader’s mind, the value of every action you desire for them to take must outweigh the cost.

It’s like a see-saw – on one end you have cost, and on the other you have value. If the cost is high, fewer people will find the value in going further.

So how do I reduce “cost” in my landing pages?

To reduce cost, you must reduce friction by eliminating any unnecessary length or difficulty in the order path, or thought sequence.

Basically, the hosts (Flint McCaughlin & company) of the interview say you must answer two of the readers’ most critical questions very quickly – you have to do this within “four inches and seven seconds” according to Flint.

Not answering the questions “Where am I?” and “What am I doing here?” means more people will be clicking that back button.

Be sure your visitor knows where they have landed.

Also reduce cost by not having many form fields. Keep questions to a minimum.

Increasing your page’s value along with decreasing its cost is another way you can drive higher conversion rates. Carefully identify and communicate key factors that set you above your competition…offer “unique value” to your prospects.

Another way to increase value – use specific, quantitative and instantly credible language when describing benefits of your products or services.

Take about an hour or so and watch this very useful webinar. They provide great examples of their work so you can visually see how to structure a page for maximum benefit along with how you should approach what you say…I’m trying some of their tips now so I’ll let you know how it works out.

Filed Under: Forum Watch, Online Marketing, Site Architecture, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , ,

Bing Offers inside Look at Search Technology

July 2, 2010 By admin

Since Google constitutes over 2/3 of online searches, search engine optimization pros like us don’t spend a heck of a lot of time worrying about the other search engines.

Nevertheless, we do like to drop in from time to time and see what’s going on with Microsoft’s newest venture into the search world – Bing. It’s been almost a year since Bing hit the information superhighway and while it’s enjoyed some growth, it’s nowhere near taking over Google’s top position.

But one thing that will help SEOs understand how Bing works that was just released is an advanced query guide.  This guide basically consists of advanced search operators webmasters can use in their site’s coding to help their rankings in the fledgling search engine.

One of the biggest advanced search operators Bing made public was the norelax operator, which automatically implements relaxcount for queries that are five words or longer. Basically what that means is any words past the fifth word in a query will not necessarily appear in the search results.

Other advanced search queries include: AND:, contains:, feed:, filetype:, language:, noalter:, URL: and more.

Check out this quick post on Microsoft’s technical site which includes a list and description for each search operator along with a quick forum on the topic from WebMasterWorld.

Filed Under: Forum Watch, SEO Technology Tagged With: , , ,
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