Oh, How Google Has Changed…
There have been many visible and invisible changes to the Google search engine this year (2010). You may have already noticed some of the aesthetic changes in terms of the look and feel of the world’s most beloved search portal. However, there have also been some very important algorithmic changes in the back end as well. In this article we will look at how some of these changes may affect your Googling!
Interface
The new look and feel of Google bodes a more modern and powerful overall search engine. Apart from the obvious and well publicised logo update, Google have implemented a variety of new search tools and filters on the left which cater to the needs of the evolved, modern day search engine user. This has been dubbed “Universal Search”.
Users can now more easily filter and customise their searches based on the specific media or service they are looking for. Sure this has been available in a different form in the past but Google is now cementing these advanced search filters as one of the cornerstones of their search interface. The universal search toolbar now also provides a variety of extra search tools such as timeline and context specific searches to name a few.
But universal search has yet another trick up its sleeve. This is the ability of users to sort search results based on how often a website has been updated. This means users can now access the latest fresh content without the hassle of having to trawl through a list of outdated results. Basically, universal search has made it even easier for users to switch between filters and views of the same search query in order to retrieve search results that are more applicable to their needs.
Finally, another notable new addition to the Google tool belt is Google Squared. This fascinating tool allows users to search for a product, category, service or any other entity and compare the results in a detailed matrix of information (in real time!). It’s just another helpful innovation from the good people at Google. Try it out for yourself here: http://www.google.com/squared.
Algorithm
As most search engine optimisation specialists would be aware, Google’s new search algorithm ‘Caffeine’ has changed the way in which Google looks at your website content. Google is now able to crawl a huge range of internet content (including video, music, news and social media) – faster and more reliably than it ever has before. This has enabled Google to understand the content and deliver a rich experience to the users in an array of new types of relevant and up to date search results.
With Google’s intelligence ever increasing, it has now become more important than ever to use reliable, white hat SEO techniques in order to achieve great search engine rankings as Google is becoming more and more adept at differentiating between real content and spam/scam SEO work. For more information on how Google Caffeine may affect your business, read Andrew Knight’s article – What is Google Caffeine?
Popularity: 9%
Read MoreSEO for Local Businesses
Are you a local business that only operates within a specific region but think you could be doing more with the search engines? Would you like to have more traffic to your site, and in turn more customers? If the answer is yes for either of these questions you should consider the potential of SEO.
In this article we will look into how a local business can benefit from SEO and what steps you have to take in order to conquer the market and have the edge over your competitors.
The trend of potential users looking to the internet for a specific product or service is increasing rapidly, and therefore it’s important that local businesses ensure their website is optimised for search engine queries.
So how can you make your website important to the search engines and attract more traffic? Professional SEO services can be expensive, particularly if you’re a small business.
The answer is to optimise your site for geo-targeted keywords. A geo-targeted keyword is a keyword that only targets a specific location, eg: “hairdresser Toowong” or “Chinese restaurant Southbank.” The idea being that users who search these types of terms are more highly qualified leads and more likely to turn into paying customers.
By optimising in this way, you’re essentially allowing the search engines themselves to act as a filter whereby only high quality traffic is directed to your site.
Research into search trends is showing that this type of approach, particularly in industries where locality is important (eg: home services, dining, etc), is proving to be a very profitable way to cost-effectively drive more traffic from the search engines.
Popularity: 19%
Read MoreWhat is SEO
Search Engine Optimisation (more commonly known as SEO) is a method which involves a variety of techniques to alter a website’s natural position in the search engine results pages (SERPs), image search, local search and/or video search to help improve its web presence and ultimately increase its traffic volume.
Do I need SEO?
As more businesses and companies incorporate SEO into their digital marketing strategy today, it’s recommended to consider SEO into yours, especially if you are targeting consumers online. Gone are the days of finding your business or company in the Yellow Pages or newspaper and expecting a positive return on investment (ROI). More and more are making the switch online for reading, learning and interacting via a wide range of systems with search engines being one of the most used today.
Why SEO?
SEO is the key to opening the door to new customers you may have never found through traditional marketing while ensuring a competitive edge over your competition and building credibility online. SEO can complement other marketing efforts (online and/or offline) such as search engine marketing (SEM) to effectively allow promotion of your website in more places than one.
How long does SEO take?
SEO is considered a long term strategy as there are various external variables such as search engine algorithms and industry competition which impact on how a website ranks in the search engine results pages (SERPs), not to mention SEO differs from direct advertising such as Television Advertising or Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which gain high volume in a very short period. View more on How long does SEO take.
Where do I start?
Anyone can practise SEO after a few hours of learning and see results; though true SEO is comprised of extensive knowledge, continuous effort and a variety of techniques. However, if you would like to begin the process of SEO for your website, please read our SEO Checklist to ensure your website is SEO ready and search engine friendly.
Alternatively, you can look at using a professional SEO company like Reload Media.
Popularity: 17%
Read MoreSEO Glossary
Here’s a quick SEO glossary for the most commonly used terms that float around in SEO land!
301 Redirect - A method used to redirect permanently moved websites from an old URL to a new URL.
Algorithm - A mathematical formula used to rank web pages in the search engines. Algorithms are constantly changing to display the most relevant website results for users.
Authority - The credibility of your site in the search engines. A combination of high quality SEO, domain age, links and good content can help build a site’s overall authority.
CMS – Stands for ‘Content Management System,’ which allows users to easily update a site’s content through an easy editor.
Domain Age - The age that your site has been in existence. An old site can be ‘trusted’ more in the search engines, which can contribute your site’s authority.
Footer Links - Internal text-based links that are placed at the bottom of a page and links to other internal web pages.
Freshness Bonus – Occurs when new content is regularly added to your site. This attracts the attention of search engines, and can improve the possibility of the search engines crawling your site more frequently. And if it’s interesting, people will be crawling to read it too!
FTP – Stands for ‘File Transfer Protocol,’ which is a method of transferring local data to web servers and vice versa.
Geo-targeting - Geo-targeting is the process of making your keywords targeted to a geographic region. This is a good strategy to implement for your keywords, particularly if your site is competing in a competitive and established digital marketplace. Geo-targeted keywords (eg SEO Brisbane), can provide more relevancy for your site and it also usually means your users are more ‘purchase-ready.’
Google PageRank - Also simply known as PR, PageRank is a metric, on a scale of 0-10, for ranking a page based on its quality and quantity of links. PageRank was a primary factor on which Google’s algorithm was based.
Keyword - A word or term that your target market types into a search engine to find your website. Keywords can be generic, branded, long-tailed and/or geo-targeted. They should be selected based on your consumers’ mindset, relevant to the content on your site and how competitive your industry is.
Link Building – The action of getting other websites to link back to yours.
Meta Tags - Includes the meta title, meta keyword and meta description text that is inserted into the code of your site’s pages. The meta title and description for your site may appear on the search engines results pages (SERPs).
Referrals - Are those visitors that arrive at your site via a link from a third-party page. Link building can increase site referrals.
SERPs – Search Engine Results Page.
Title Tag - Title tags are inserted in the code of your site’s pages and appear at the top of your web browser. Title tags are important for SEO and should be unique to each page.
Website – Hopefully you’ve got this one covered!
Popularity: 17%
Read MoreSEO Checklist
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is required for any website wanting to rank well in search engines such as Google, without it you may be potentially turning away thousands of new customers every year, even more depending on which industry your business or company represents.
Therefore, employing the services of a trusted and ethical SEO Company is recommended. However there are certain steps which can be initiated before SEO takes place to help make your website SEO ready.
- Website Content: A common and critical issue of today is lack of content (information) on websites. As content enables the creation of authority or “juice”, it helps search engines define what your website is about and ensures correct placement within their indexes. Just as a person will read to learn more, a search engine crawls to gather more information. However, please bear in mind when adding content to your website that it’s unique (not duplicated anywhere else online) and relevant, if not your website may be penalised or removed from the search engine’s index completely. For further information on content and how to maximise its return, please read my previous article on Building Authority.
- Website Pages: A website is generally created to offer a message, to sell products or offer services; therefore it becomes important to structure your website correctly. Nobody wants to read a giant page with information, nor do search engines. Just as we would turn the page of a book or a document, a search engine will crawl a website and its pages and categorise accordingly. Adding additional pages to your website with unique and relevant content will help further improve your chances of ranking higher when SEO is implemented.
- External References: An important factor search engines take into consideration are inbound links to a website, i.e. websites which link to a website. Without these external references, competing for keywords which yield high return is not possible. SEO itself involves extensive link building to help make a website relevant to its target keywords; however there is a line in the sand between quality and quantity. Therefore, contacting other websites which relate to your industry and requesting a link can potentially benefit you, however keep in mind when requesting a link the website is related. For example, if Bobs Tyre Company specialises in selling tyres for vehicles, his industry would be automotive. If Bob requested a link from Jane’s Beauty Parlour, Google may find that to be irrelevant, therefore the quality of that link will be low. However, if Bob requested a link from Smith’s Vehicle Parts, the same industry as Bob, Google will find that to be relevant and the quality will be much higher. For further information, please read my previous article on Link Building.
With these above points in mind and initiated before you enlist the services of an SEO Company, it will most likely save you both time and money whilst increasing the possibility of ranking higher in Google and other search engines faster.
Popularity: 35%
Read MoreDomain Age and SEO
Domain names have been around for a while. Decades in fact. But how important in 2010 is domain age to SEO and your website ranking results?
At Reload Media we believe it’s very important to Google and your search engine rankings.
If you combine domain age with URL matches and good on-page optimisation, you are setting yourself up to have some great results.
Many businesses such as Digital Point are selling people (and spammers) older domains than what they can buy brand new on say Go Daddy.
At Reload, what we prefer to do is work with clients that have existing domain age and a good website, and therefore relevancy in the Google search algorithm.
That way, you aren’t artificially creating a result with a domain you don’t personally know or control and one that might have been in ‘blacklisting’ trouble in the past.
If you buy a business in the future it’s worth considering the value of the domain. With many baby boomers selling up in the next few years there are going to be many domains out there that aren’t valued properly if domain age isn’t factored in.
Popularity: 22%
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