Google has always added their fair share of April Fools shenanigans to the popular search engine. In years past they have made fun of Yahoo and Microsoft. Currently Google has renamed itself Topeka in honor of a return gesture the Kansas town made to acquire a special Google project.
As part of the ongoing Google April Fools jokes they have adjusted the the search time from seconds to a host of odd units for measuring time.
You can see the full list below in the screen shots. Look to the right to see the time unit. The first one is my favorite, from Monty Python’s The Holy Grail Fame, “times the velocity of an unladen swallow.” Other time units used include microweeks, microfortnights, jiffies, parsecs, centons, centibeats, epochs, nanocenturies, hertz, warp, and 23.00 skidoo
Another year of search engine madness is about to come to a close. In 2009 we have seen the Google search engine display many variances and ranking fluctuations. So before we put on the swami cap and bring out Nostradamus SEO quatrains into the light, let’s recap some of the major Google changes and initiatives.
In 2009 The Google Search Engine:
Put more weight toward the keywords in the domain. In fact, keyword-rich domains could achieve top 10 rankings in less competitive phrases just on the weight of the domain name and a few onsite optimization tweaks.
We saw Google increase the visible space for the Adwords Sponsored PPC displays. The money maker for Google is encroaching more and more on the organic search results territory.
We saw name branded companies get extra weight in the organic results, not from normal SEO algorithm enhancements and features, but from manual Google manipulation.
Searchers’ IP addresses were instrumental in displaying Google Local results for major keyword terms in various 1 box or 4 box positions in the organic search results.
Customized Search and IP captured-related searches made search results for the unknown more focused on what you have visited in the past rather then the “true” organic listings.
The introduction of Caffeine by Google displayed more real time results from news, Twitter, Facebook and other sources and was displayed in various locations on the organic search results page.
There were many other factors that changed in 2009, but the ones above are the most prevalent (in our eyes) and affect the potential customer click through rate.
Now for the 2010 predictions:
With the introduction of the Caffeine Google Search Engine enhancements and the ability to display real time results, and more of the old “Universal Search” parameters of images, news, videos, et al. traffic from first page SEO results will decrease for organic results if you are not in the Top 3 for that respective search term.
Google will be displaying so much more data and manipulating the organic displays with their data enhancements that normal percentage click through traffic for front page results positions of 4-10 will dramatically decrease. Here’s what this should mean to the average reader and company: it’s time to increase your SEO budget now rather then be caught with your search engine traffic results in the gutter and scrambling to attempt to catch up.
Social media’s impact on search results will be misguided. Many will attempt and are attempting to divert budgets to create social media campaigns to attract visitors and catch the wave of potential search traffic. Organic search results in the future will display social media mentions in a live format. However, they will only be displayed for milliseconds as their display order is chronological. Link values from social media campaigns will have little impact on the organic ranking results.
Social media done correctly and for branding awareness and bringing like-minded people together is a great concept and can improve your marketability. But in terms of SEO rankings, the affects will be dismal at best. Your ROI will be your measuring tool to determine if social media is effective for you or not.
Google will continue its push to become a Broadcast Network for the Internet.
Many in the industry view Google as a Search Engine with products and services to display websites and enhance a webmaster’s efficiency. Unfortunately, that view is misguided. In 2005-ish this prediction was made, and every year Google positions itself away from a Search Engine environment and into a source to view data online. The broadcast network business model is like the major television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC Fox etc.) that display shows to attract viewers. Commercial advertisers pay for that model.
Google will continue to promote, provide, and display data to attract viewers. They are targeting IP addresses to identify your location. They have brought the Google iPhone application to capture your mobile consumption. Google wants to know as much about you as it can so that it can tie advertisements directly to you. In terms of advertising dollars, knowing you can get your message directly to a “buyer in need” rather then a “channel surfer” will pay huge dividends in the end.
As Google continues to move forward and push the envelope of data distribution, Search Engine Optimization will become more target-focused. The ROI in SEO is up for grabs and will remain significant, as long as your budget, focus and SEO company can see the big picture and be able to adapt.
Search Engine Optimization, known as SEO, is the ability to rank a website in the top search results. That’s what we do here as an SEO Company. However there are times that clients need more than SEO, they need marketing, website functionality, and a plan to increase their ROI.
Clients either are well versed in Search Engine Optimization and need someone to do the heavy lifting, or they come with no knowledge of the subject, but know they need exposure to their websites and heard SEO is the way to go. The bottom line for most clients is an increase in profits. That’s what is measurable to their business. Increased web site visitors or traffic normally increases the bottom line or profit.
Big Oak SEO Company took on a new client in February 2009. The client had a successful brick and mortar store and ventured into the online arena. The client operates a Yahoo Store with over 300 products in a niche market. As their SEO Specialist along with our Keyword Researching Specialist we optimized their Yahoo Store for their keywords and started a link building campaign.
The net results in just over 1 month was an increase in $2,000 of sales, and a doubling of orders from the prior month. Under normal circumstances we would consider this a huge success. However the client was lacking a fundamental marketing tool for their website, namely a presence in Google Shopping.
This was beyond the scope of our SEO contract, but Google Shopping presence for this clients products would positively effect the clients ROI. After all ROI, Return on Investment is what the client is really after. Being ranked #1 for a term that doesn’t bring in sales will not benefit the client nor keep a happy customer.
It took a several hours over the course of a few days and several tweaks to establish, create and optimize a Google Base Feed for Google Shopping. (BTW this extra effort was free of charge – no extra billing.) In just 3 days after the first Google Feed went live, the Client reported their first sale from Google Shopping. I am still tweaking the feeds for Higher Google Shopping Results and the client is adding more products to the feed, but this is definitely a case where going the extra mile pays off.
In SEO it not only what you know, but who you know at times as well. Having a SEO Company that is well versed in Google Shopping, Google Adwords, Google Maps, Web Design and Web Functionality can mean the difference between Ranking and Rankings along with Increased ROI.
As always you have to take anything from Google with a grain of salt, espeically since most of their ranking algorithms are closely guarded secrets.
However you really have to wonder when their estimating algorithm has trouble counting to 17 as illustrated below with screenshot snippets from the first two pages of results I witnessed today.
Video search on YouTube accounts for a quarter of all Google search queries in the U.S., according to the latest search engine numbers from comScore. Its monthly qSearch report, which was released on Thursday night, breaks out the number of searches conducted on YouTube. If it were a standalone site, YouTube would be the second largest search engine after Google. More searches are done through YouTube than through Yahoo, which has been the case for the past few months. – From TechCrunch
Wow, Yahoo! has certainly fallen from those halcyon days when they ruled the Internet. But this news is really more important because it tells the SEO community that you should not be overlooking the video world of YouTube.com. Big Oak SEO has been stepping up its efforts into the video marketing world and this is a sure sign that it was a good move on our behalf. Are you using the power of video for your product or service? It would be a mistake not to and it is a lot more affordable than you think.
And lest you think your videos would only show up if someone is searching on Youtube.com, take a look at the screen shot below. I did a search for cheap wine (don’t ask) and the screen shot shows the last results on page 1 of Google’s search results. Yes, you see two videos from Youtube.com. Wouldn’t it be nice to have your video there if you are a wine seller.
Results for Cheap Wine. Notice the last results are videos from Youtube.com
I have also seen video results in the #4 position on Google’s search results and I’m sure this will only continue to happen more in the future. Don’t sell your service or product short, anything that can be marketed on the web can have video marketing to support it. Make sure it is part of your Internet marketing plan.
Twas the night before Google when all through the net
the users and SEO’s were all upset,
Search Wiki, and GMail Themes were rolled out in style
Lively was nuked and GOOG sat with a smile.
Matt Cutts and the Spam team were out on the prowl,
with visions of Black Hatter’s on a moonlight howl.
Comments and Blog post were active indeed
Tweets and Diggs until some fingers did bleed.
Pushing the Chrome, the browser of GOOG
Collecting the data of the unknowing newb.
Signed into Google for a Search Wiki rating
Seeing spammers explode like a round of speed dating.
Knowing that Search Results are the victims of Change,
Exploring the options and manipulating the range.
There is a way to succeed with out a Adwords Budget
Social Book Mark Me Please for a Link Back, Nudge (it)!
Webmaster tools now showing me data,
my info is delayed come, back Later.
The Capcha’s not working on Signups for things,
Google Local Maps verification not giving me rings.
Twas the Night before Google and Tool Bar Page Rank still not Updated
the Indian outsources were on alert for some projects we stated.
The Ranked Hard Seo Comic issue explains it all well
It’s all Will‘s fault, What the…
So Digg me, Tweet me, This Link Bait attempt
At humor towards Google et al, I am feeling a little “verklempt!”
Back in July of this year, the internet was buzzing with news that a new search engine was coming, a Google-Killer that could unseat the giant of the search engine world. Part of the buzz surrounding this product was the fact that it was being designed by former Google employees Anna Patterson, Russell Power, and Louis Monier. This supposed Google-Killer was called Cuil (pronounced cool).
So what happened? Google is still the giant of the search engine world, and most people probably don’t even remember Cuil since its launch at the end of July of 2008. Did it collapse? Has Cuil shut down? What happened to this highly touted search engine that was supposed to draw us all away from Google?
Like most of those that attempt to overtake Google (see MSN Live, Yahoo, Ask, Excite, Alta Vista, really just about anybody), Cuil just didn’t have what it took to draw users away from the search engine that has quickly come to dominate everything we do with the web. Some blamed the preponderance of irrelevant search results that Cuil seemed to like displaying. Others blamed the unconventional style with which Cuil displayed results (see image below). But what really killed Cuil?
Cuil's unorthodox way of displaying search results.
In the end, the only thing that killed Cuil was Google. Not by actively battling them, but by simply doing what they do – being the best. Sure, Cuil claimed to have more sites indexed than any other search engine, but by returning irrelevant search results, it didn’t matter how many websites they had indexed, nobody could find what they were looking for.
Google continues to capture around 80% of the search engine market, while Cuil has slipped to roughly less than half a percent (0.005% of total search traffic to be specific). Cuil isn’t the first to try and claim the title of being a Google-Killer, and they certainly won’t be the last, but one thing is for sure…there is no such thing as a Google-Killer. At least not yet.
Google already had the most user-friendly analytics program (you are using it, right?), and now they have added even more features to this wonderful and free tool. Yes, Google Analytics is free and it is invaluable in helping you understand your website’s traffic. You can find more videos showing off these new features, but I have included my favorite below which shows off the new motion charts in Google Analytics.
My colleague, Will Paoletto, wrote an excellent post about using logic to prove that directory submission was still a valid SEO tactic, despite what you may have heard from other SEO companies. I thought I would take this a bit further and help you decide if the directory submission is really worthwhile by showing you how to judge the quality of the placement page your site would be listed on in the directory.
We’ll start out with idea that you have an accounting site and you are looking for quality directory submissions.
While a directory may have a decent PR ranking (3-5) you also want to check to make sure the page your listing will be placed on is a quality page. You can use this method for any potential page you are requesting a link for, but this is especially helpful when deciding whether a page within a directory is worth your money.
I think it’s fairly safe to assume that if you’re reading this, you already know what Chrome is, and unless you’re a Mac- or Linux-only user, you’ve probably already got a copy installed on your current machine. If so, consider yourself an early-adopter and likely not the target audience for Google’s latest advance into wresting the digital world away from Microsoft.
What Exactly Is a Modern Browser?
When Blake Ross set out to create Firefox, he did so with the explicit intent of making a browser that his mother could use. At the time he was going up against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) and the internet was still largely pulled into our homes through tiny little dialup connections, and was thus largely pushing through static content. Mind you, the web had progressed beyond frames and (to a large extent, tables) but that internet was vastly different than the internet that has developed under the lumped, umbrella title of Web 2.0.
The modern web is a fast, fluid entity. It’s interconnected. It relies on a handful of technologies that were advancing sometimes faster than the browsers that were meant to display them. And one of those technologies, JavaScript had grown from a simple client-side scripting language to the linchpin behind many of the web’s more desktop-application-like websites typically blended with other technologies (AJAX anyone?). Yes, it seemed that the internet was attempting to blow through the knee in an exponential growth period and the two primary browsers (Internet Explorer and Firefox) were attempting to keep up through incremental updates.
Here is the beginning of a very good article on why we should be suspicious of Google. Sooner or later some entity will have to get involved to monitor this information Goliath. You can read the full article here: Top 10 Reasons to Fear Google.
Once just a search engine, it is now sprouting up extensions like Jack’s bean stalk on steroids. These extensions are what’s making Google so irreplaceable for many people who want the one stop shop. Google is fast becoming the Wal-Mart of the Internet. And it’s for that reason that some people are starting to fear the company.
10. Google Video
When most people think of looking for videos, YouTube is the automatic choice. However, Google has gone a step beyond YouTube. Not only does a Video search yield all of the YouTube results and play them in the Google window, but the search engine also searches the entire web for your content. While Google Video may not feature categories like YouTube, when you can search the entire web, who cares?
This SEO blog is provided by Big Oak SEO, a SEO Company. Most blog posts are related to search engine optimization, short reviews, SEO tips and increasing site conversions. Email us at contact@bigoakinc.com or give us a call 804-741-6776 to see how we can help your company. More
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