Value-Driven SEO

The Google Caffeine Update

2009-10-07T22:21:00.000-07:00

Much has been made of Google’s recent “Caffeine” update in the world of webmasters and search engine marketing professionals. Over the past month it has been the subject of discussion in search marketing forums on the internet, and now even clients are starting to ask me what exactly the Google Caffeine update is. I have therefore decided to dedicate a blog post to the subject. It is definitely not the only one on the internet, but I’ll be giving my perspective on how this update will affect things in this arena.

First, what is the Google Caffeine update? Well, there’s nowhere better to get it than from the horse’s mouth. Here’s what Google had to say on the Google Webmaster Central Blog:

“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google's web search. It's the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits "under the hood" of Google's search engine, which means that most users won't notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we're opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.”

As stated by Google, the changes being introduced not related to the user interface, but more to the inner workings and infrastructure that drives the search engine’s crawling and indexing of web content. Google is soliciting feedback from webmasters, and you can find the “new Google” at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/. You can also compare the current version to the new version at CompareCaffeine.com, which give a sense of the difference between both versions.

Now the question is, how will search rankings be affected by this overhaul to Google’s system? Here are a few points that I have noted from research and testing out of Google Caffeine:

It seems that this overhaul will mean that results are generated faster. Here’s a test I conducted on the search term, “Dallas Cowboys Stadium”

"Old Google"

"Google Caffeine"

As you can see, there is a considerable difference in speed with Google Caffeine.

There is also a noticeable difference between the way that Universal Search results are displayed for queries. This may temporary as Google completely make the change, but is worth noting.

There is greater emphasis on making results as current as possible. Mashable recently conducted a test on Google Caffeine and claims that in some instances; it “seems more capable of producing real-time results”. This would certainly make sense as Google is facing increased competition from Twitter, Facebook and a revitalized MSN search (Bing).

As far as rankings are concerned, there does not seem to be a big difference in site rankings overall. And for those who want to know how this change is going to affect your business, my view is if you were already doing SEO the right way, you’ve got nothing to worry about. At the end of the day, relevance will always be king, and SEO professionals that focus on this and execute effectively will be successful.

It's Not Just SEO, It's Your Web Presence (Part 1)

2009-07-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

In my day to day experience working with clients, prospects and colleagues, I have noticed that certain questions have started to pop up with notable frequency. I hear things like:

"What is the future of SEO"?

and:

"What factors will be the most important in search engine algorithms"?

and let's not forget:

"How big a role will social media play in rankings"?

The truth is that there is a great deal of uncertainty in the world of SEO today. Businesses want to know how they will be affected by changes being implemented by the major search engines (especially Google), and more importantly, they want to know what steps they can take to stay relevant. So how does one continue to stay relevant? How does a business maintain pages that continue to signal a high level of relevance to search engines on their respective topics? The answer lies in this simple concept: It's not about your website anymore, it's about your web presence.

I distinctly remember a conversation i had with a colleague on the subject of web presence optimization. We didn't even call it "web presence optimization", we just knew that businesses would have to begin to look at SEO, and online marketing in general from a new perspective: One that focuses not just on their websites on their marketing initiatives, but on their web presence.

The goal of web presence optimization from the perspective of a business is to facilitate customer engagement by using every avenue available on the internet. When one takes this view, it suddenly becomes obvious that a website is but the beginning. Involvement in every facet of the internet experience today is critical to long term SEO success and overall success of your online marketing strategy.

So how exactly does this pertain to SEO? Well, search engines are in the business of providing the most relevant result to a user's query, and it is clear from the signals they have been sending that factors other than on page optimization and traditional link acquisition will begin to influence search engine rankings. Search engines are now more interested in your web presence than in your website.

In the next installment of this series, I will be going into the details of web presence optimization, and discussing examples of effective web presence optimization.

Getting the Most Value Out of Your SEO Campaign

2009-06-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

The undeniable marketing potential that lies in the hundreds of millions of web searches conducted daily has planted search engine marketing firmly on the minds of business owners, website owners and marketing directors alike. These days, everyone knows that it is vital to be visible to users when they search on relevant terms. This focus as well as the ever- increasing costs per click on the paid search side, has led to a greater level of interest in SEO – ranking organically on relevant search terms.

It is important however to view SEO from a value perspective, not a rankings perspective. Let’s be honest with ourselves, there is room for just 10 listings on the search engine results pages for any given search term. This means that you must view SEO strategically, with a focus on creating value. So how does a company do this? Well, I will be highlighting some key points below:

Focus on the bottom line, not rankings

Like I usually say to my clients, look at SEO the way you would look at any other component of your advertising mix. When you do this, you are able to focus on the results that really matter to your business, rather than obsessing over how many keywords you have in the number one spot on Google. Say for example, you were trying to reach the 18-24 female demographic, then you probably wouldn’t be buying a spot during ESPN’s Sports Center. It probably isn’t going to work. The same applies to SEO – focus on understanding the language that your target audience uses in searching for your offerings, and optimize around that. When businesses fall into the trap of focusing only on rankings, they end up with a false sense of achievement when they rank number one on certain terms, and it is only after much time and effort that they realize that their newly-attained rankings are not so valuable after all. Focus on driving sales, leads, and revenue through the selection of the right keywords, and you’ll be on the right track. More on keywords next…

Do your keyword research

This is one topic that never gets old, as far as I am concerned, and it ties in with the idea of focusing on your bottom line. Keyword research and analysis is the MOST important component of an SEO campaign. This is because search engine optimization requires the investment of time and effort, and you do not want to use up your resources in going after the wrong keywords. This is especially true in very competitive verticals. If you spend all your time optimizing for a keyword that does not convert well, you simply will not see the kind of ROI that you would with a better converting keyword with similar search volume.

Focus on the long-run

In order to be truly successful at search engine optimization, you must focus on relevance, relevance, relevance! Let’s face it: if you launch a credit card information site today, you have just about zero chance of achieving top placement on the major search engines for a term like “credit card information. However, unless you plan to shut down the site in the next two years, it is important to work at building up a reputation for yourself as being relevant on the subject of “credit card information. This means developing unique, useful content on the subject and ensuring that your site revolves around that subject. By developing unique content, you are able to send out the right “keyword signals” to search engines and also attract relevant inbound links.

As far as short-cut SEO tactics are concerned, I am a firm believer in cutting these out as much as possible, and investing time and effort in building a reputation of relevance on the the subject of your choice. Think about it, what made Google the juggernaut that it is today? It’s simple – they had the most relevant results for users’ search queries. Their credibility, and yes, their stock price are tied to continuing to remain relevant. This means that short cut tactics will not help your business in the long run. The rankings are called “organic” because they are supposed to be natural. Focus on being as relevant as possible, and you are on the way to being seeing great value from SEO.

So there you have it – by paying attention to these three pieces of SEO wisdom, you will be putting your business on the right track within the search engines.