21 Jan 10 SEO: five developments we can expect to see in 2010

There have been many recent blog posts about potential SEO developments for 2010, so I thought I’d gaze into my own crystal ball and see what patterns emerged from the mist.

So, if you want to dominate the natural SERPs over the next 12 months, these are the factors that I think are going to be the most important.

1. Website load time

Check into Google’s Webmaster Tools and you’ll get plenty of feedback on website load time - a sure sign that it’s an element you need to get right.

When the GoogleBot crawls your site, it needs an easy and unblocked route to your content. Many posts on the Google Webmaster Central blog suggest allowing the GoogleBot to crawl all areas of your site - they could be key areas in your visitors’ journeys, and they could have high load times. Giving GoogleBot free rein over your sitemap will make sure you get the best possible feedback about page load times.

Google’s ‘Caffeine’ update incorporates load times as part of its algorithm. So far it’s been difficult to measure the impact of this change in the UK SERPs; but as we move through 2010 this update will affect more sets of keywords and themes. In August last year, the big shake up had a big impact on a set of ‘Hollywood’ search terms, which also gave more power to brand owners. I expect this to roll out even further and - of course - throw up odd results (i.e. from other countries) as we go along.

2. More competitive local search results

Google Local Business listings have proven to be a fantastic channel of traffic for website owners. As more SEO agencies look to leverage the power of these listings at the top of the SERPs, I expect Google to reward top spots by focusing on quality and relevance.

The current set up means you can easily bump your listing into the top spots for relevant searches like ‘Solicitors Kent’, but as we move into 2010 I expect listings that have more reviews, similar location-based inbound links and use other Google products (e.g. AdWords, Product Search) will benefit the most.

I expect Google to tighten the algorithm of local listings further, so it won’t be (potentially) as easy to achieve quick wins in this area.

3. Authority websites to continue to deliver more weight for SEO

The way we search is changing. Whether your original search stemmed from Facebook, a Twitter post or elsewhere, these days we can avoid trawling through pages of search results to find what we’re looking for. In some cases it may just be easier to ask someone within an online community - we are guided by recommendation more then ever.

Although it’s hard to predict the longevity of Twitter’s growth (or decline), networks of this kind will be a growing source of direct visits to your website. Regular visits from authority websites will strengthen your position in the SERPS and need to be taken into consideration for your SEO.

This means you need to embrace social networks: tweet regularly, generate discussion and get your news read!

4. Link building: chasing PageRank will be a thing of the past

Link building strategies are often guided by chasing a link from a site with an awesomely high PageRank; but I predict we will soon be switching our attention to websites that have greater relevance and high crawl rates. Inbound links from static websites that are never updated will be worth very little, whereas a link from news source that isn’t necessarily ‘anchored up to the nines’ will be of greater value.

I also expect PageRank will be removed from the Google toolbar in 2010.

5. Long tail will (still) be the future for 2010

As we use increasingly accurate searches, the user journey through Google’s results pages may be much shorter then previous years.

This means that websites (especially eCommerce or news-related sites with lots of fresh content) need to focus on higher quality ‘SEO friendly’ content. Good descriptive copy, metadata and headings all count towards achieving accurate results.

There will be more pockets of opportunity for long tail searches in SEO; the trick is to identify these terms and build your strategy around them, rather than getting distracted by the the ego-inflating terms that don’t necessarily convert.

So, there you go - a few little gems from Coast Digital’s SEO crystal ball! Let’s hear your predictions for 2010 too… ideas in the comments please.

Source: Ashley Fletcher for Coastdigital.co.uk

Tags: 2010 seo, google caffeine, load time

06 Jan 10 Google Caffeine - It’s Started

For those of you in the SEO world, you’ll have known for some time that Google has been planning some major new changes, and has recently started to implement them. The full-blown Google Caffeine is coming soon, so this is just the start…

However if you are just a regular user of Google with little or no knowledge of SEO, you may not know that Google now personalises your search results, based on sites you have clicked on before!

Now, in the past, if you’d been logged into a Gmail account, or other Google service which required you to login, then Google would have already been personalising your search results. To stop it from doing so, you could just log out.

However, now the new changes have taken effect, you’ll notice a couple of subtle changes…

1. When you mouse-over the very top of the Google search home page, you will see that there is a menu bar which auto-hides itself.

 

Now move your mouse:

Okay, not much new here, but now do a search for anything you like, and look at the new option in the Top Right-Hand side…

Now click on the Web History feature (see arrow above), and you’ll see the following option:

You can now select: “Disable customisations based on search activity”.

Doing so will (for this browser session only), leave your SEO search results unaffected. If you have a Google account, you can sign in and change the settings by selecting “Web History” at the bottom RHS of the above screen, and logging in. This way, if you have a Google account, then it will mean that you can disable Web History whenever you are logged in.

So what does this mean for me?

Well if you are doing some SEO or having some done, and want to check your Google position, don’t get excited unless you have disabled Web History – you haven’t shot to #1 overnight!

If you are a Google user who finds it hard to remember the URL of your favorite sites, and doesn’t bookmark them, then Web History can be handy. Say you search for Car, and click on a specific site, next time you search for Car that site may appear closer to the top of the results – in a nutshell that’s what Web History does. However this will skew your results so that if a super new Car website appeared that is cheaper and otherwise superior to your old favorite, it could take you longer to notice it exists. It also means that Google knows exactly what you search for, and gathers data from your every move, using it to manipulate the data it provides you with…

So we’ve at least told you how you can opt-out of this service if you want it.

Other changes which have been happening for the last six months or so, are where US, Australian, and other non-UK English-speaking sites appear in the SERPs. For example, searching for Sandwich Shop Cheltenham (despite that fact that Google know’s I’m in the UK), brings up results of Sandwich shops in Cheltenham Australia, amongst those in the UK – oops! How could that be even remotely relevant?

OK, so this could be useful for those of us in the UK for specific information-related searches, but if you are looking for a product or service, then this is highly irrelevant and makes the likes of Yahoo, Bing or another top search engine perhaps preferable?

Google deny there is any fault with this particular change, however the internet jungle drums say otherwise.

Only time will tell as to whether this is a permanent change or a temporary blip, but it’s good to know that with Bing’s popularity on the up, we do have other options, if we aren’t happy with what Google are up to. However for the time being, Google is still THE Search Engine of choice for the masses, the question is, how long for?

Source:  Google Caffeine - It’s Started

Tags: google caffeine

05 Jan 10 Keyword tool

 

Just came across this, looks like still in the early stages of development, but for those who can think outside the box, i’m sure you can see how this tool can be used for link building.  g.keyrow.com

Tags: Keyword tool

05 Nov 09 Leapfish - Social content merged with traditional query data

If you haven’t heard about LeapFish, you soon will. Think iGoogle with a social twist. The latest version of this search engine that launches Thursday merges social content with traditional query data, images and videos.

Registering as a member allows you to customize the home page with widgets, Facebook and Twitter feeds. In fact, more than 25 widgets will become available today, including Celebrity News, Hulu, The Onion, and Yahoo Sports. Those who log in can build a social media profile, a sort of LinkedIn for social media.

LeapFish offers two search options — traditional and real-time — to provide a variety of perspectives on news and events happening across the Web. News pulls from a variety of sites. The real-time results from Twitter update as they are posted. Visual partitions separate news, blogs and images on the search query page.

Buttons on the right of the results allow the person to toggle between Google, Yahoo, Bing, Flickr and more. Instead of jumping from page 1 of the query results to page 2 or beyond, the search engine offers an arrow key at the side of each section. This provides a way to scroll forward or back through the query results without leaving the page. While eliminating additional query pages reduces the load time, pulling in a variety of content requires a bit more processing power and time to deliver results.

The engine also allows you to share or recommend content to others with “share” and “like” buttons without leaving the search query. It has been under development for about one year. The first phase debuted in November 2008, but remained a shell until now.

LeapFish CEO Ben Behrouzi says an algorithm that sits above the content providers can identify “a place” and “a thing” when someone types “New York Sushi” into the search query box. The engine calls in data from Yelp.com, an authority on restaurants. The site relies on spiders that crawl the Web, but not for all content.

“This is a new Internet, much different than the days when the original search engines were developed,” Behrouzi says. “The days of 1996 and 1997, when we captured the Internet with 10 blue links, are behind us.”

Behrouzi says LeapFish’s new home page can support 100 widgets and “it will smile right back at you.” But if you try to build that on an iFrame infrastructure, he explains, it will crash.

LeapFish will finish 2009 with about $10 million in revenue from its paid advertising model introduced earlier this year, Behrouzi says.

Look for the engine to introduce behavioral targeting advertising in 2010, as well as an online marketplace where marketers and advertisers can buy, sell and trade paid-search keywords, as reported in March. The company will launch the trading platform early next year. The LeapFish advertising model requires marketers to purchase keywords for one year.

Source: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116840

Tags: LeapFish, Search Engine, Social Content, Social Media

29 Jun 09 Are backlinks nothing unless your branded?

Following googles recent update, some are talking about how unless you are an established authority site and well branded, you may need to more than your link building efforts.

The main questions now on most marketers minds are:

How to brand your business, so that searchers are typing your name directly into google!

Who is talking about your brand?  Some think this has become a main part of google’s view to who is an “authority” site.

Which sites are continually coming up in the social media scene?

Who is coming to your website outside of search? Volume, duration, navigation etc..

What is the related search volume, how many search for ’Nike’ and ’trainers’ in the same session?

Following the resent update, many major brands have benefited in serps for unexpected competitive keywords.

Tags: backlinks, brands

25 Jun 09 Bing vs Google Tool

Great tool here.. Compare results from bing and google on one screen..

http://www.bing-vs-google.com/

I’m sure like me, many inquisitive marketers will be examining these search engines and thinking of the implications this could/would have worldwide..

Tags: bing v google, compare search results