Blogger Tim Peter Contemplates Business in a World Without Google

Imagine doing business without Google. For some companies, it would be like the sun going out. They wouldn’t exist. Yet, says Tim Peter on Moran’s Biznology Blog, marketing online without Google is a very real prospect that every business faces. It can happen every time Google makes a change to their algorithm. Those changes can suddenly turn you from a page-one contender to a bottom of the list has-been.

Peter asks: “If (Google’s) next algorithm update—or a future regulatory-mandated change—knocked you out of their index, would your business survive?” He then offers seven tips to help keep yourself in the game should the worst ever happen to you:

1. Go where the customers are. Sure, Peter says. Everyone uses search. But everyone also uses email, social media and mobile phones. B2B companies also have the advantage of LinkedIn. Facebook could be a great way to contact your customers, but don’t forget to look at marketing channels that play to your target audience.

2. Set your objectives. Once you’ve located your customers, determine what you expect out of each of these sources. Leave yourself plenty of options for rethinking your marketing channels as things change.

3. Improve your web presence. That includes everything about you that your customers react with online. This is more than your website Peter is discussing here – it’s Facebook pages, Twitter, Yelp, LinkedIn, etc.

4. Continue to grow your opt-in contact list. Find out how your customers wish to be contacted. Then use those tools to communicate. Eliminate the methods that your customers ignore.

5. Blog. If you can do it well, Peter advises blogging. Allow for plenty of keyword-rich content that flows and provides valuable information for your customers.

6. Explore additional media. There’s still life in display advertising ; simply remarket your online message. Email and affiliate marketing can also work for you.

7. Investigate other additional media models. There are CPM and CPC, but Peter advises looking into Cost per acquisition as well.

In conclusion, Peter says that even with Google, you should be doing these things. But if you ever find yourself trying to battle your way back to the top, these tips will help keep you in the game.

Companies Griping About Google Local Search Have Nothing To Complain About

Even when Google tries to better itself, it can’t catch a break in the press. An article by Clint Boulton at eWeek.com covers Google’s reaction to a story published on December 12 that many startup companies are accusing Google of favoring iGoogle Places, Places Search and Place Pages over those of businesses that rely on Google results to generate business and provide decent search rankings.

Representatives from TripAdvisor.com, WebMD.com, Yelp.com and Citysearch.com complained that Google tends to promote links to its own services that are similar to the services they provide.

They point to Google boosting the profile of its Google Places local search directory. The lettered “pins” on any local search are typically sites listed with Google Places, and found within its Place Search Service.

If your company is on the map, and you’re one of the lettered locations on the map, you will rank higher than other businesses in your area that don’t. By favoring their own sites, companies say Google is makes it harder for people to find results from the startups, pushing them lower on the page.

One business, TripAdvisor.com, even reported a 10% drop in visits via Google-based searches.

In its defense, Googlesays this is not an attempt to take money from its advertisers, but rather to simply get information to people as quickly as possible.

For once, Google may have a point. By improving its product and trying to use new technologies to expand its brand, Google is doing what any business would do.

Plus, Google says Pages and Places get a lot of the information that they use from the websites that are complaining. Google’s only goal appears to be to get the information required to the person who wants it.

Search Engine Watch.com’s Duncan Parry Offers Tips on Staying Caught Up in Search News

The last few months are the best indication in a long time that the search business is constantly changing. Duncan Parry at SearchEngineWatch.com points out that today’s new employees in the business have never heard of AltaVista, Excite, Lycos and many of the other search engines that once dominated the field.

In his article “How to Keep Up to Date In Search,” Parry offers some pointers on what to take note of in this business, and what to ignore, since it will eventually change anyway.

1. Ignore noise. Parry says that with all the blogs and articles published every day, there are more “experts” entering this field by the minute. Most of it can be ignored. Everybody has an opinion, Parry says; whether those opinions mean anything depends upon whose saying them. He suggests sticking to sites that you find to be credible and correct. He also says to keep up to date on technical developments in the products you currently use or are planning to use.

2. Get an RSS Reader. All sites worth their salt have RSS feeds. Make sure you have access to a reader so you can add your favorite sites to it. This puts all relevant articles into one easy-to-find place, and allows you to add more at any time. Parry recommends Google Reader for its ease of use, and Feedly for its looks. (Feedly can be linked to Google Reader to give you the best of both worlds.

3. Watch the mainstream press. SEO sites are not usually the first place that you will find interesting news about developments in the profession. That’s given to major news sites first. Subscribe to the New York Times, USAToday, BBC News, etc.

4. Learn about digital technology in General. Along with Mashable.com, Parry provides a significant list of popular sites that you should be reading.

5. Some search sites are musts. Specifically, Parry recommends SearchEngineWatch and SearchEngineLand. They offer daily newsletters and feeds. They sum up the news you need to know and make it readable. Parry also recommends Search Engine Roundtable, as it often seems to be the first site with hot news from Google.

6. Don’t be afraid to cut. Culling from your Reader list over time is to be expected. If a site isn’t doing anything for you anymore, get rid of it.

Parry says that there’s good stuff to be found out there, but even the good stuff can get overwhelming. Determine which experts are worth your time and trust and take it from there.

Google Instant Previews: Will it Change the SEO Landscape?

The closing months of 2010 are proving to be busy ones for Google – and by extension, busy ones for the entire SEO industry. The recent release of Google’s Instant Previews, particularly, has sent waves of reaction through the search community.

By now you probably know that when you click the little magnifying glass next to a search result (or when you tell Google to do it automatically), a graphic representation of the page you’re considering pops up.

Some people, like Danny Sullivan at SearchEngineLand.com, took the Instant Preview release as more water under the bridge. In fact, Sullivan wonders what took Google so long to do this. He reminds us that Ask.com tried a similar tactic some years back that was not overly well received.

However, other critics, such as Patrick Stafford at SmartCompany.com, see a much more significant change coming to SEO as we know it. If people begin to click on a search result due to the “look” of the site, rather than the information in the descriptive copy, your position on a page may take a back seat to how attractive your page is to the eye.

Experts say that much to the dismay of webmasters, but much to the joy of page designers everywhere, how your page looks is now going to be important. Colors, the size and position of the logo, even your who site layout now needs to consider how eye-catching it is.

Knowing that, 2011 could be an interesting year for SEO indeed.

Google Gains on Bing-Yahoo in September, According to Experian Hitwise

Recent statistics from Experian Hitwise reports that search giant Google received nearly 75% of all searches in the U.S. in September. This is a full 1% gain from the previous month, and is remarkable in that the gain was made in the same month that Bing was hoping to cut into Google’s share by adapting its search engine to its new partner, Yahoo!

International Business Times writer Surojit Chatterjee, in his article “Google Rules Online Search Market in September,” says that Google’s gain was substantial, given that searches on Bing gained 2% when the search was conducted on Bing.com. However, Chatterjee says that Bing/Yahoo searches reported a 5% loss. That more than cancels out any gains that Bing.com may have made on searches made to its home site during September.

64 other surveyed search engines split the remaining 4% of the search pie not already taken by Google or “Bing-Hoo.” According to Chatterjee, Bing can be encouraged by the sites intellectual growth. For example, he says that in September, Bing saw its first double-digit sequential growth in the four major categories of Automotive, Health, Shopping and Travel.

Chatterjee could not say whether Google’s release of its Google Instant service helped the company’s growth in September. However, Google stock prices rose steadily throughout the month after Instant’s release.

SearchEngineWatch.com’s Gary-Adam Shannon: White Hat Honesty is almost Never the Best Policy

In a column that many industry insiders may find brave for someone to write, Gary-Adam Shannon has news for White Hat link builders that they probably don’t want to hear. In “White Hats: This is Why You’re Getting Beaten,” Shannon makes this statement:

“With all things being equal, budgets matching and balanced resources, there is absolutely no way limiting your strategy to white hat will ever beat a black hat strategy.”

Shannon goes on to say that combining “white hat” and “black hat” procedures in link building (or Grey Hat) is not only the way things get done these days, it’s the only way things get done. He says someone with a lot of experience in Black Hat can skillfully combine his tricks to make them look white hat.

The stories you hear about black hat link builders going bad, Shannon says, are usually stories about inexperienced beginners. Having an experienced black hat builder on your team is vital in today’s fiercely competitive market.

If the idea of black hat makes you nervous, Shannon suggests creating a new webpage; one that uses black hat techniques. Then compare its performance over your current white hat site. If for some reason, your black hat site get’s tagged and penalized, you still have the white hat side to fall back on. Shannon says your chances of even being caught using black hat techniques anymore are next to nil, due to Google and Bing trying to outdo each other.

Shannon’s main point is that it’s time for link builders to evolve. Or as he puts it, “Life isn’t fair, and neither is the search business.”

Several Articles Point Out Google Instant’s Somewhat Fickle Blacklisting System

Now that the hubbub about the SEO effects of Google Instant has quieted down to almost nothing, a sudden flurry of articles has appeared, centered around a list of blacklisted keywords published by 2600.com. The “Google Blacklist,” as they call it, is a list of several hundred terms which, when searched, will turn off the Google Instant feature for that search.

Google says this is specifically to keep porn, violence and hate speech results from appearing in front of people who aren’t specifically looking for those things. However, both Matt McGee at SearchEngineLand.com and Samuel Axon at Mashable.com see some strange anomalies in Google’s word choices.

For example, McGee says, one of the terms that Google Instant blacklists is “Pamela Anderson.” This means you can’t use Google Instant to help you search for anybody named Pamela Anderson, of which there are surely thousands.

Since all variations of the word “Porn” are blacklisted, McGee reports that you can’t use Instant Search to find specific information on the popular indie band New Pornographers. And if you’re a rap fan, simply typing the phrase “rapping women” turns Google Instant off as well.

Axon admits that while most of the blacklist consists of words that many people find offensive, there are others that simply seem out of place on the list. As an example, he points out the fact that “bisexual” and “lesbian” are on the list, while “heterosexual,” “asexual” and “homosexual” or not. He guesses that the offending words are probably the ones most likely followed in searches by the word “porn,” so Google Instant simply assumes the search outcome and shuts off. (That’s not good news for people looking for “lesbian health services” or “bisexual counseling,” for example, but there it is.)

A Google Rep told Axon that they are constantly trying to improve the system. What they mean by “improve” remains to be seen.

Google’s new “Insight for Search” Tool an Easy way to Leverage more SEO Info, CanuckSEO Says

Software analyst Joyce Loews, writing on Jim Rudnick’s “Canuck SEO” blog, is very excited about Google’s recently released SEO tool, Insights for Search (IFS). In her article “Four Great Ways to Use Google’s Insights for Search Tool for Canuck SEO," Loews calls IFS the “obscure cousin” of Trends. She adds the software actually outdoes its predecessor in several important areas.

IFS reports the popularity of any keyword or phrase searched for since 2004. What makes it unique is that you can whittle down the results to determine the most popular search terms in virtually any State or province, and in the United States you can whittle it down to major metropolitan areas.

Results can also be determined according to content or images sought.

Citing some Canadian examples, Loews says the most searched term recently in Quebec has been recipes for “croustade a pommes,” or as we know it in America, the apple crisp.

A search on “SEO” reveals that Canada’s interest in the subject has risen steadily throughout the past six years, with British Columbia sending the highest number of searches for that term.

Loews says what IFS does best is to perform comparative research into search volumes. It’s not a numbers tool, like Keywords, but rather a way to narrow searches by region, time period of the search and search type. She says it’s a vital tool for companies with a new product to sell. They can research which areas of the country are interested in the company’s keywords. This tells companies where their potential audience is.

Another feature of IFS is “Rising Searches,” a list of keywords and search terms that have steadily risen in popularity over the years.

Loews sums up by saying that the heavily graphic-laden site should help to persuade the stubborn naysayers at your office that SEO is important, since search results are spelled out so well.

Google’s Eric Schmidt Hints Announces Fall Debut of “Google Me” during Google Zeitgeist Conference Speech

On the heels of finding out that Facebook had finally surpassed Google in total visits in August, Google CEO Eric Schmidt bared his teeth a bit at the recent Google Zeitgeist Conference in Scottsdale. According to John Brownlee, writing for Geek.com, Schmidt confirmed what most people suspected – “Google Me,” the company’s latest attempt at taking some of the social marketing energy that Facebook has all but snapped up , will debut this fall.

However, Schmidt was equally as adamant at insisting that Google Me was not going to be a hub for social networking. Rather, he sees the service as adding social networking capabilities to existing Google services, such as YouTube (you’d be notified if a lot of your friends were watching the same video, for example).

Brownlee says the industry is taking a “wait and see” attitude to see exactly what Schmidt and Google are up to. “Let’s just hope it’s not another ‘Buzz’ fiasco,” Brownlee says, referring to Google’s ill-fated Google Buzz project, which users never really accepted.

Meanwhile, other commentators see Schmidt’s comments as being much more mercenary, using such terminology as “Facebook-scraping,” and saying that Google is willing to take as much info from Facebook by any means possible. For example, Schmidt also announced that Google had recently invested over $100 million in the Zynga Company, developers of Facebook’s popular Farmville and Mafia Wars games.

Then, says Seth Weintraub at Fortune Magazine, there’s this quote from Schmidt’s Google Zeitgeist speech:

"The best thing that would happen is for Facebook to open up its data. Failing that, there are other ways to get that information."

What are those ways, Weintraub asks? He envisions someone creating a cartoon of Schmidt saying, “We have ways of making you talk. Mwahahahahah…”

Make no Mistake: DailySEOTip.com Knows 5 SEO Mistakes that Happen all the Time

Everybody makes mistakes. It’s how you learn. And once you know it was a mistake, hopefully, you avoid it and never worry about it again. Scientists learned this lesson with the brontosaurus. After years of believing it was its own species, it turned out that the bronto was no different than the apatosaurus. You live, you learn.

In SEO, mistakes are also a reality, says Kev Strong, a guest columnist at DailySEOTip.com. Some mistakes are made more than others are, so Strong put together a list of “5 SEO Mistakes Anybody Can Avoid.” He says these are the five most commonly noticed mistakes that webmasters notice when asked to analyze other people’s websites:

Duplicate Titles: Every page on your websites should have a unique tag. Many times, multiple pages are found using the same tags, which just gets confusing for the search engines. Strong says to check this by either browsing your website or searching on Google for your domain. If you see duplicate titles, change them on the pages that need changing.

Duplicate content: If you’re not repurposing pages that have been moved or changed, you run the risk of having duplicate content seen on your site by the search engines. While the rel=”canonical tag can help deter problems, it’s best to just put new content on those pages or remove them completely.

Blocking your Website: One of the most common mistakes made by people who should know better is when web developers forget to turn on the “index, follow” command for new pages. Look at your source code. If you see “noindex, nofollow,” change it immediately.

Non-Crawlable Navigation: Java script menus keep search spiders from crawling your site. They can’t rank what they can’t read, so think hard before deciding to use Java.

XML Sitemaps: These help the search engines see all of the pages on your website. You can even use a sitemap uploader, such as xml-sitemaps.com, to alert all the search engines at once to the existence of your site.

Terry Van Horne: 3 SEO “Best Practices” That Nobody Understands

If you’ve been in SEO for more than five minutes, you know there are certain “rules” or best practices by which everyone takes as law. But Terry Van Horne, writing at the Fire Horse Trail blog, says there are at least 3 Misunderstood SEO Best Practices that are accepted as truth by even the most experienced SEO experts.

• Accepted Practice #1: Pages should be built for Search Engines, not Users. Van Horne says this is not a good “best practice” for several reasons. First, search engines aren’t buying your products, people are. Second,algorithms change in search engines all the time. You don’t want to become a slave to the algorithm. Third, bowing to the will of a search engine now may eliminate future options that you may have had otherwise. For example, if you eliminate meta keyword tags to please Google because Google doesn’t use them, you may be eliminating the possibility of being seen on other search engines with a different algorithm.
• Accepted Practice #2: Google only indexes 70 characters in Titles. We’ve all heard this one, but Van Horne says that we have it wrong. While it’s true that Google only displays up to 70 characters in your title, it indexes much more. Van Horne says that Google indexes the entire title, but “weights” the words in the title up to the tenth word or 70th character, whichever comes first. All words beyond that are indexed as part of the document.
• Accepted Practice #3: There is little SEO value in headings. Van Horne says there’s no way to prove whether this is true or not. He says attempting to measure this belief to verify its truth would be too complicated. However, he falls on the side of using headings, simply because they stand out on the page and may influence other surrounding ranking signals. Van Horne sums up his article by saying that no SEO rules are set in stone. He suggests keeping track of what works for you and what doesn’t, and to take any “set rule” with a grain of salt.

John Hargrave: A 10,000% Increase in Backlinks is yours – By Doing Nothing

Everybody can use more links. Now John Hargrave, writing for Search Engine Journal, explains “How to Get 10,000% More Backlinks in Google, Without Doing Anything.” The secret, he says, is Google Caffeine, the search giant’s latest indexing system. Available since June, Google calls it the “largest collection of web content” it has ever offered. Caffeine exercises deeper and more frequent indexing in an effort to provide more up-to-date, real-time results. The backlink increases can be seen in the “Links to Your Site” section in Google Webmaster Tools.

Using his own clients as an example, Hargrave reports an average 10,000% increase in Google-reported backlinks. While this is an average, he provides a partial list of sites surveyed and the changes in backlinks recorded. Increases range from 394% to over 56,000%. This particular instance showed an increase from 5,900 backlinks to nearly 3.5 million backlinks, all in a little over a month.

The real secret here is that previously, Google admitted that it displayed only a fraction of indexed backlinks with Webmaster Tools. Now, with Caffeine, they are able to show a nearly complete list of backlinks. Not surprisingly, Hargrave says, Bing has increased the number of links it reveals to site owners to the 1,000 most high quality links leading to your site. This is a clear step above Google, which includes literally all sites (including spammers) that may be linking to you.

Dustin Brady Reports on Building Links the Google Way

In his article “What Google Thinks about Your Link Building Efforts,” FathomSEO.com’s Dustin Brady addresses one undeniable fact: Despite what your SEO firm says is the most important link building strategy, Google has the only opinion that matters. “Google decides which links matter and which don’t,” he says, and with that in mind, he lists the best and worst strategies in the eyes of the search engine giant.

Among the best strategies, Brady suggests becoming an expert in your field and contributing to blogs and forums. However, you need to keep your content useful. Don’t spam sites or shamelessly promote yourself. This is because the best quality links come from developing relationships in communities. Brady also suggests publishing compelling content. This is a very broad category and can include tutorials, white papers, tools, videos, graphics or anything you believe will be linked to by other sites that are relevant to yours.

Brady also suggests using humor for an “immediate traffic bump.” We all know how well humor works in social media. Just make sure that what you post is truly funny, or it won’t get you any links at all. The worst strategies in Google’s eyes include reciprocal links and mass submissions to link directories. For the latter, Google much prefers submissions to relevant directories.