As this is our first SEO Highlights post, we will discuss some events that may not be current news but nevertheless relevant to the field of search engine optimization and internet marketing.
Search engine technology is undergoing some significant changes. From the social networking boom to Google trying to redeem itself, the search engine industry is abuzz with excitement.
Twitter : The Next Generation Search Engine?
Twitter is still in its infancy almost three years since its birth. Millions of members tweeting all day exchanging thoughts, opinions and interesting finds on the internet. Twitter has seen the potential of this vast array of information and introduced what may be the next generation search engine. Twitter’s new search function allows you to find tweets relating to your search query.
Of course the results are often laden with useless tweets and self promoting online marketers. But among all the noise, you may be able to find some useful links to items of interest. More importantly you may be able to identify other tweeters with similar interests who can keep you updated on new developments for your topics of choice.
This crude attempt at search engine functionality is still new ground for Twitter but poses some interesting questions. Have users lost faith in the traditional search engine dominance to access useful information? Is the human element more trustworthy than any search engine crawler? Time will tell but for now Twitter is basking in the glory of being hailed as the next step in the social media revolution. Let’s see what time will bring.
Google : Denial, No comment, Admission !
SEO’s are ranting and raving about Google’s recent change. Update as some call it but merely a change as one respected SEO pointed out. To update would indicate an improvement and most of us in the field of search engine optimization will agree that the recent change is anything but an improvement. So what are we going on about? The whole ‘brand update’ or ‘Vince change’ as some choose to call it.
Recently SEO’s have been noticing that brand websites are being favored for the top positions in search engine queries. Google initially denied the bias but has since admitted that the algorithm is once again changing. Seems like Google is behaving like a politician these days. Supposedly we should seek solace in the fact that the top positions for long tail keywords is still up for the taking and only a few keyword queries are affected. Google has also indicated that this brand prejuidice is due to “trust”, “quality”, “PageRank” and “value”. How does one measure “trust”, “quality” and “value” in the online jungle is anybody’s guess.
However an interesting point to note is the mention of Page Rank. Hopefully this will disspell the myth that some SEO’s tend to subscribe to with relation to Page Rank. This is a clear indication that Page Rank is an important factor like we have always believed. Ok, we admit that this might be changing. The gurus at SEOmoz also downplay Page Rank and advise that we focus more on ‘mathematics and statistics’ in future SEO campaigns. We agree. Rand Fishkin (SEOmoz) also advises using ‘third party data’ from sites such as Alexa, Quantcast and Compete to make more accurate assessments of why some sites rank better than others. We agree.
Take a few minutes to watch this interview with Rand Fishkin where he discusses social media, reversing Google’s algorithm (yes, you read correctly) and SEO metrics among other things. Video on WebProNews.
In an upcoming post we will discuss the Organic SEO ‘Lab’. Tests and expermients that we conduct on our host of domains. Our most interesting discovery was made in January 2009 after we achieved a Page Rank 2 on our 18 day old subdomain. Yes, a subdomain that was created and uploaded with content just 18 days prior to the December Page Rank (PR) update. Initially we could not fathom how we managed to acquire a PR 2 with almost no link building. We later discovered one key point that may have played a part in it but that will be revealed at a later stage.
So what next with Google? Well, there is talk about Google increasing the number of variables in its algorithm. While we will never know if or when this will happen, it may be prudent to consider other SEO metrics in your SEO campaign. Our advice is to follow good SEO principles and practices and then focus on your traffic, bounce rate and average user time on your site. Keep your readers engrossed in the content and keep them coming back by bookmarks, feeds and email. Somebody out there is watching!