Saturday, January 31, 2009

January 2009

	Search Rankings in 2009 Stop worrying about rankings
Do you search Google for your trophy keyword every morning to see if you're still on the first page? Do you check more than once a day? If so, you are a rankings junkie and it's time to shake the habit. Things have changed with the search engines to the point where rankings are no longer the best indicator of SEO success. You should be focusing on how much traffic is coming from search, which keywords are driving that traffic, and most importantly, which keywords are driving sales. So what changes do we need to consider? Search Wiki: SearchWiki gives registered Google users the opportunity to mess with the position of sites in the SERPs. If this catches on, and isn't ruined by spammers, I expect SearchWiki to gradually gain more importance in what people see when they search. The first step will be to allow the option to let people's search results be influenced by friends' wiki changes, and then Google could start including aggregate wiki data as part of their search algorithm for the general public. Ten Blue Text Links: Rather than the traditional 10 text links to web pages when you search, they are starting to serve up other types of content that is relevant to your search query—known as a Universal or Blended search. While optimizing web pages is still important, if you aren't creating and optimizing a wide array of digital assets, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to get your brand in front of searchers. Personalization: The search engines are starting to customize the search results for each individual searcher based on their search history, geographic location, or other demographic factors. This change makes it futile to focus on search engine rankings, because the ranking will vary depending on who's searching. Mobile Search: Although it's similar to a web search, mobile search centers more around local search—it's about finding restaurant reviews, phone numbers, directions, stuff they need to know when they're on the go. Often, the default Google search from a mobile phone serves up search results that are localized to the searchers location. What does all this mean? It means we need to rethink how we look at search engine optimization. We need to do all the little things to make our sites relevant for our keywords. We also need to think beyond our own websites and provide unique, valuable content in as many different formats as possible. Focus on being relevant to whatever and however people might search, and your traffic and sales numbers will tell you if you are hitting your target.
	Blog Cog Churning Out Great SEO Pearls of Wisdom
Below you will find a few interesting anecdotes from the most recent entries on our SEO.com blog: http://www.seo.com/blog/ “For years, surfing the internet has been less about finding the right wave, and more about braving an unforgiving storm for the perfect ride. The old days of casually surfing from one wave of information to another in a state of quasi-spiritual exploration are largely gone. ” -Adam Torkildson “Google announced the release of their own open source XML sitemap generator tool. There are several third-party sitemap tools around that do a great job, but Google decided that they could add some value with their own tool.” –Dave Bascom “So then my question today is, “is it possible to have the best of both worlds?” Can a website that has an amazing professional design also be SEO friendly? Or can a website that is very SEO friendly also have the “perfect” professional design? My answer is yes.” –Dustin Williams “It wasn't a normal 404 error page. It was a 404 page that was hilarious and fit with the comedic nature of the site. I thought it was funny, and have actually shown people this 404 page. But why fix it? What are the benefits to creating such a page? Well, first of all, custom 404's look more professional. Second, your exit rate will certainly decrease.” –Scott Smoot “How does someone get their site indexed in Google and the other search engines? I have seen many different answers to this question. Some of these answers are, “submit the site to Google” or “link to your site from blogs and forums” or even “submit your site to some directories.” While these methods may all work, there is one really effective way to get your site indexed fairly quickly in Google.” –Dustin Williams “In addition to these account best practices and other account management techniques, there are three things that can help you drive more traffic and generate more sales for your site. They are, increase your negative keywords, use the Placement Network, and try out the Display Ad Builder.” –Brock Hadley "I have some seriously bad news. You might want to sit down for this. Ready? There is no instant SEO button. I'm sorry to have to bear this bad news to you, and I hate having to be the one to break it to you. There's no switch either. Or simple form to sign, trick to use, or connections you can have with people on the inside." -Scott Smoot