Google Just Completely Changed SEO… Back to What it Was!

From its inception, a search engine’s job was simple:

Return the highest quality websites possible for every inquiry.

Over 15 years later – that job remains unchanged. However, in the time since search engines first became available, the art of “search engine optimization” has become an industry within itself. Overnight “professionals” sprung up around the globe proclaiming that they knew how to get paying customer’s websites to the top of Google. And many did.

“Content is King”

The king phrase was born. SEO professionals understood that there were many ways to help the real value of a website shine through. They developed techniques (called Search Engine Optimization) to make the assessment process conducted by a visiting search engine spider easier and more accurate. The focus was on increasing  the value of the website, making it apparent what purpose the site served and ease of use.

One of the clearest paths to ranking better naturally was by adding more unique, relevant, quality information to the site and clearly labeling it. Google became the premier search engine because of their repeated value of quality. Their business became successful because of it and their model demands that they adhere to it.

However, as well as Google has done, their system has always been flawed. Algorithms are used to determine which site should be placed before another and while they are routinely refined, at the end of the day a machine is making an evaluation of the value a person derives from a website. The logic is inherently flawed.

The proliferation of websites in every conceivable niche and the potential to turn a home business into an international one has forged a tremendously competitive climate from day one. The SEO industry was molded by the ambitious demands of ROI-conscious customers that all wanted to be #1 before the industry even had its legs to stand on. Corners were being cut and tricks were employed in an effort to manipulate the system into giving their sites a more favorable rank than they deserved.

Up until a few days ago, the cat and mouse scenario best described the SEO industry. Search engines would alter their secret algorithms to stay one step ahead of cunning SEO strategists, paid to get their clients to the top. But the answer has always been the same:

Develop a quality website.

A Return to Quality

The problem with my over-simplified solution of “developing a quality website” was that the quality was being measured by a machine and often felt arbitrary and inaccurate. And the design, the aesthetic quality of the presentation of the site has not and cannot be factored into the equation by a machine. A machine cannot decipher beauty. Beauty is not deciphered. A machine can only follow an algorithm developed to guide its decisions and regardless of how complex and refined that algorithm may be, it will never be able to replace a human being.

Google’s ingenious solution was to leave their algorithms and spiders in place to filter out a list of sites they deemed to be valuable, but then let you, the user make the final determination. Just recently they quietly launched some new, groundbreaking features:

1. Promote: Google now gives you a little tool besides each listing to promote  it above the listing before it

2. Remove: Beside each website is also a tool to remove it from your list. Removing it sends it to the very bottom of the page.

3. Add a Result: This feature is at the bottom of every search page and lets you add in your own website.

While this may not seem that significant, it completely changes the SEO game by rooting out deception and returning it to its essence. SEO experts can continue to sell their service of making sure your site is coded cleanly, labeled accurately and thoroughly, quality content is in place and relevant and the site is easy to navigate, but the power is in the hands of the user for the first time.  The only lasting strategy to get your website to the top of the list and keep it there is to develop a useful website.

The secret to ranking well has never been a secret. The time-tested principle of delivering a quality product each and every time is Google’s core business model. These new developments only push that farther by letting actual people decide on the list that is presented to them.

I recommend consulting with your SEO professional about employing the best practices, but concentrate on quality and never substitute a gimmick for it.

We love your feedback. Please do not hesitate to leave comments and questions here or to email us directly.

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Using Search Engines to Your Advantage – Part 2

It’s All About Quality

SEM, SEO, PPC, CPC – the list of acronyms is seemingly endless. An entire sub-industry has formed to serve businesses who want to use search engines to drive traffic to their websites with the hopes of increasing their profits.

Google is the undisputed king. Google currently commands about 80% of the market share because of one simple fact:

Google returns the highest quality websites back for any search conducted.

Google has a definite cult-like following much like Apple does, but loyalty formed after Google clearly outperformed its competitors for years on end. It is false to assume that people are loyal to a free service for any other reason. Regardless of what any Search Engine Marketing business tells you, Google’s business and the success they have achieved are due to their quality. Preserving the quality of their results is the cornerstone of their business. If your site does not meet their established criteria, you will not rank higher naturally than one that does – despite what any quick-talking salesperson tells you.

Any company that employs tricks to get your website to gain ranking is not looking out for your business’ best interests. By cheating the system, they are damaging Google’s business and it is only a matter of time before Google catches on. Remember, Google has infinitely more resources than you do and will continually refine their algorithm to account for sites using gimmicks to attain a higher ranking. Their business demands that they continually produce the best quality for every inquiry coming their way. Always keep that in mind. That’s what this all comes down to.

Natural Ranking Vs. Sponsored Ranking

There are 2 different ways your site can be ranked in any major search engine:

Naturally and Sponsored.

Natural ranking or Organic ranking is just like it sounds. Google, Yahoo, Dogpile, MSN, whoever, has listed your site based on its determination of your website’s quality. The more valuable your site is the closer to the top it will be. As discussed in Part 1 of this series, this is equivalent to the NY Times writing about your business on their own as opposed to paying to be included through advertisements. The power of ranking naturally is immense. Just as most people will visit a restaurant after reading a two page spread about it in a newspaper, the same is true online.

The investment in time and resources required to rank well naturally fluctuates depending on the competitiveness of your industry and more specifically on the keywords/phrases you want to rank for. The heavier the competition, the harder it is going to be to move above them. But the value derived from ranking in the top 5 for effective key terms is incredible and can continue to pay dividends even as your PPC advertising budget dries up. Imagine if the article written about your business in the NY Times lasted day after day, month after month. Imagine if it appeared every time someone searched for the type of food you served or the type of products you sell. This is what it means to rank well naturally.

I always explain to my clients the value of ranking well naturally because it is something I strongly believe in, however it is not always the most effective way to close sales. From a conversion or ROI standpoint, you want to aim for the most relevance to what a user is looking for. If a prospect searches for “Santa Monica Surf Lessons” and finds your website in the natural rankings, but then discovers that your business is located in Santa Cruz, that prospect is most likely going to start their search over. In other words, you may get substantial traffic, but if there is discrepancy between what a user is looking for and what you actually offer, your conversion rate is going to be low.

Either way, you’ve increased the awareness of your business and made an impression on that visitor, but you might not have sold anything.

The Importance of Sponsored Ads

While Google’s natural rankings are not specifically set-up to help you close a sale, their paid advertising campaigns are. A Pay Per Click or Cost Per Click campaign puts (almost all) of the controls in your hands, so that you can dictate the keyword phrases you want to target, the regions you want to cover, the time of day you want your campaign to run, the verbiage on your ad, the web-page a user will be taken to when they click on your ad, and to some extent, the placement of your ad.

Implementing a CPC campaign enables you to quickly launch yourself to the top of a search engine. This can be critical if you have a time-sensitive product or service. For example, if you have a product or discount you want to offer for the Christmas Holiday, time is of the essence and relevance is key. You can use a CPC campaign to begin ranking for key terms that match what your demographic is searching for (but your site is not ranking for naturally) and then send visitors to the web-page of your choice.

One of the advantages of a PPC campaign is that you can link your ad to the web-page of your choice, meaning you can send a user directly to the order page of the product they searched for rather than the page Google has deemed the best and most relevant. In addition, a PPC campaign offers you the flexibility to design highly relevant, effective pages that relate specifically to the term that brought the user there. These specialized pages are commonly referred to as Landing Pages and their sole purpose is to convert your traffic into paying customers. All of the images, verbiage, functionality, prices, etc. can be tailored to the exact product or service you are offering. You can implement a PPC campaign with corresponding landing pages at strategic times during the year, or you can run multiple campaigns simultaneously that appeal to different demographics. You can run different campaigns consecutively or only use them during down times in the year. The options are obviously numerous, which is why we recommend working with a professional to help you develop the right overall strategy, one that is tailored specifically to your business, budget and goals.

Pay Per Click AND Natural Ranking

More often than not, the answer for most businesses is to use both tactics in conjunction with one another. A PPC campaign can bring you instant, highly targeted traffic and will allow you to refine your ad in real time so you can maximize the results you are getting. Ranking naturally will bring you a constant stream of traffic that you do not need to subsidize by paying monthly for them and is a long term, but less specific solution. The right mix of both SEO and PPC will help generate sales. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses and subtleties.

We advise you work with an expert in the field of Search Engine Marketing (SEM). In a later article, we’ll outline how to find a good SEM company and what to be careful of, but in the meantime, please feel free to contact us with any questions or sends us the names of companies you have worked with in the past. We would love to make that information known to our readers.

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Effective Online Advertising Options Other Than Google

The shift away from traditional print advertising to the Internet has been decisive, rapid and with good reason. We recently spoke to our friend over at Anonymous Ad Guy, a top executive in the advertising industry regarding the change and he said, “Put yourself in the shoes of the typical Marketing Director who has to justify every dollar spent. With online [advertising], he or she can track the results of each placement, and optimize on the fly. You can’t do that with any other media. And with the economy tanking, it’s more important than ever to show you’re getting your money’s worth.”

Advantages to Advertising Online:

• The reach of an online advertisement is comparable to if not greater than a print ad. Journalism.org estimated that almost 70% of Americans were online in 2005

• Online advertisements can be targeted to users based on their age, gender, interests, political affiliation, geographic location, socioeconomic status, level of education and more.
• The recipients of online ads are often more qualified because they are being exposed to advertisements that are relevant to them. And ad relevance increases an ad’s effectiveness by maximizing conversion rates and advertiser’s ROI.
• Adjustments to online advertisements can usually be made in real-time, allowing advertisers to tweak their ad to further its effectiveness.
• Detailed reports about the type and frequency of interaction with an online ad and the profile of the people who engaged it are delivered to advertisers, often as it happens. This type of data is not typically available in a traditional ad campaign and therefore is often estimated.
• Advertising online is usually far less expensive. There are no raw materials being consumed and the space being used by the ad is virtual, reducing the cost to the advertiser.
• Advertisers can elect to pay for their ad only when it is seen and / or clicked on. They also have more control over the amount they are willing to pay per click and can end their campaign when their budget for that month has been spent.
• Advertisers have control over where consumers are directed after clicking on the ad, reducing the distance between the advertisement and the actual product or service being sold.

An Emerging Community

The abundance of people online and the seemingly impersonal nature of the Internet has created a social dynamic much like we are seeing in the “real world.” People are gravitating away from companies and towards other like-minded people to provide them with their news, entertainment and consumer advice in an effort to seek genuine value. This dynamic has contributed to the success of blogs, YouTube, and all of the social sites that let people network based on similarities and voice their unedited opinions to their network and / or the entire internet.

Social Networks

Yesterday, MySpace.com, the #1 social network with an estimated 180 million registered users launched a new platform that allows small businesses to easily advertise to the users on their site. The platform titled, MyAds, lets business owners create or upload their ads directly to MySpace and specify the age, gender and geographic location of the users their ad will be displayed to. Advertisers do not have to have a MySpace page, can have users directed to any location online after clicking the ad and can start a campaign with a minimum of $25. Like Google’s AdWords model, advertisers are unable to decide on the exact placement of their ad, but can increase their ad’s longevity by increasing the cost-per-click.

Facebook boasts over 100 million registered users of its own and also offers a similar tool to business owners that allows them to target ads based on political affiliation, interests and level of education in addition to the user’s age, location and gender.

Public Opinion Sites

CitySearch.com and Yelp.com command a strong following. Both sites have been embraced for their effectiveness in providing every day people with an outlet to rate and detail their experience with a business. People online are increasingly relying on the opinions of others to help them decide where to spend their money and are shying away from previously established authorities on such matters. The quality-rating of a company has been democratized.

Advertising on a search engine result page has been so successful for advertisers because users are actively seeking information about the same topic being advertised to them. In their search, they are more receptive to relevant ads because it is viewed as a source of information rather than an advertisement. Advertising on a public opinion site takes advantage of the open mindset of the user searching for information and then reinforces the ad with the public’s unbiased opinion (provided they are in agreement).

For an example of this, let’s look at CitySearch’s page for Fronteras Mexican Grill & Cantina in Alhambra, California. The restaurant is receiving 4 1/2 out of 5 stars from 8 users and directly below the rating is a high-quality video ad produced for the restaurant. The video is engaging, provides a quick idea of the feel of the restaurant and most importantly, the claims of quality are confirmed by people unaffiliated with the restaurant but have rated it favorably.

Both Yelp and CitySearch let you list your business for free and Yelp allows registered business owners to feature a review at the top of all the reviews, helping you create a positive impression of your company. Advertising options on Yelp include listing your business at the top of a search for similar businesses and appearing on competitor’s pages. CitySearch offers similar services as well as videos like the one on Fronteras’ page to give your audience a more dynamic idea of what your company is about.

Do you need Google’s AdWords?

Google’s AdWords advertising campaign is a viable solution for most businesses but understanding your demographic and their online tendencies will help you craft an effective, often multi-pronged approach to reach them. AdWords is extremely effective in terms of the immediacy and quality of its results and ROI, but Google’s pricing and targeting model has now been replicated by other companies. It is in your best interest to consult with your marketing expert to determine whether AdWords is the most effective solution for your business or whether it is better replaced or used in conjunction with a comparable one.

We are always interested in hearing what is working for you and welcome any questions you may have. Please reply to this article or contact us directly.

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Using Search Engines to Your Advantage – Part 1

After speaking to dozens of my clients over the years, I have realized that there is a prevailing fog of confusion and misinformation surrounding search engines and how they operate. In this series, I will explain in basic terms what a search engine is, how it makes money and how to use it to your advantage. All of the information we provide will build in complexity as we delve further into topics so I recommend reading them in order even if the first couple of entries seem rudimentary.

1. What is a search engine?

A search engine is simply a website that searches every other website online to find the one that best matches the search term or keyword entered by the user. Each search engine is operated by a different company and has defined different criteria to determine which sites best match the keyword(s) entered by the user.

For example – I did a search on Google and Yahoo! for “Los Angeles dog groomers” and both yielded completely different results. Below are screenshots of both:

Google:

Yahoo!:

2. Why do search engines display different results for the same search?

As demonstrated in the example above, both Google and Yahoo! display entirely different results for the same search. According to Google, it searched 257,000 sites and Yahoo! searched 206,000. Both have a different formula or algorithm they use to decide which site is first and which is last and while neither company will reveal the exact process used to arrive at the list displayed, both give site owners suggestions to improve their chances of ranking well. And while there is some mystery caused by not knowing exactly how your site is being evaluated by any search engine, there is one basic concept all search engines adhere to:

The relevancy, uniqueness and quality of the information provided will always be a deciding factor in placing one site before another. To understand why this concept is true for all search engines and will remain as such you have to understand how they make their money.

3. How does a search engine make money?

All search engines operate on a business model much like a newspaper. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll use the New York Times as an example. The NY Times’ primary revenue comes from advertisers who buy ads in the newspaper to advertise to the paper’s readers. The price of the ad is determined by the size, placement and most importantly by the projected number of people that will view it. The same formula is used to determine the cost of a Super Bowl commercial.  This year 97.5 million people watched Super Bowl XLII and advertisers paid 2.6 million for the right to advertise to them for 30 seconds.

The NY Times and Google are much the same. The larger their viewership, the more their ad space is worth. Their best method for attracting a large amount of returning viewers is to consistently provide a quality product to the people that rely on them for information. If the NY Times is not providing in-depth, accurate, timely news and it is not better and more relevant than the news the LA Times is providing, their viewers have no reason to read their paper (and view their ads). Google is exactly the same.

Google has become the dominant search engine because it provides the best results based on what people are searching for as determined by the people doing the searching. As a business, you can take advantage of the audience Google has acquired by appearing prominently in their search results and channeling their traffic to your site. And you can do it for free.

Next Up:

In part 2 we will discuss how to effectively use a search engine to gain exposure for your site, the cost of using a search engine and the time in which you can expect results.

All comments are welcome!

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