Google Instant. Impact on SEO
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What is Google Instant? What does it do?
Google has announced recently that it's changing the way it delivers search results, introducing Google Instant. As the name states, Google Instant means that the results will show up instantly, as the user types in more letters or words.
To deliver the results instantly, Google has changed in the way the page is written, the static HTML page being changed into an AJAX application, which allows Google Instant to enable this three important features: dynamic display of results; predictions of the text, shown in lighter gray; and scroll to search through predictions.
Google Instant was only launched in a limited number of countries, but can be accessed at www.google.com/instant.
- Why is Google changing its results page?
Since its inception, Google has strive to continually improve their algorithms so that the search process is more efficient, providing users with the information they seek, as quickly as possible. All the changes Google has made lately (including here Google Instant and Google Caffeine) further this pursuit.
As with any change to its search, Google risks upsetting its large base of current, primarily satisfied, users. One of the main flaws of this particular feature might be that users will get distracted by all the predictions and lose focus. This is why Google stated on the Google Blog that a big challenge was to find the right design, in order to minimize the distraction to users. After extensive testing, they have arrived at the conclusion that the current design is the optimal one, since it not only shows the predictions in the search box, but also the results for these predictions, that changes as users type in more data.
- How does Google Instant affect SEO methods?
- Relevance is a key factor. Since users see predictions as they type, they might tend to refine their searches more frequently, looking only at the top results, so it is less likely they will even go to the second page of results. If this is the case, it will be even more vital to optimize a site so that it's present in the first page of results.
- Also, either searches will become shorter, as users use the information given by the predictions and adjust the terms used, either they will become longer, as they add additional information in order to get to a result. Either way, companies have to anticipate which of these two trends will take off and optimize their site accordingly.
- Click-through rate may be affected. Now, the click-through rate is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions – but it is not certain what counts as an impression with Google Instant. AdWords ads keep changing according to the prediction, which means several ads will appear as the user gets to the right results. Are these impressions or not? Google's response is that, at the moment, an impression is considered as such if an ad stays on the page for more than three seconds.
- Browsers should be considered. Today, many browsers offer the option to install a toolbar and search Google directly in the browser, without going to Google's homepage. It is not clear yet how Google will handle this issue.
- Conclusions
One thing is clear with the rollout of Google Instant, users will change their search behavior. With this change, SEOs will need to once again adapt their strategies. One of the effects will be an even greater need to be on the first page of search results, as users will more often refine queries, instead of looking deeper in the result list. This change in user behavior will not be over night, but it will evolve over time. It remains to be seen if the best strategies will be shorter queries or longer-tail queries, but as always, testing will be key in determining what is best for your business.
In 2005, Yahoo! launched a similar tool called Yahoo! LiveSearch, also based on AJAX. It never became the default for the Yahoo! front page, but users had the option to add it. However, the tool was eventually abandoned. The reason for the failure of LiveSearch is uncertain. The quality of the implementation and the readiness of the market to accept the product at the time are both possible causes. A Project Manager at Yahoo! during that time asserts that Google Instant is a far superior implementation. But the question still remains if Google will have success with it, where Yahoo! failed. Given the historical record of the respective company's execution, my bet is on Google.
How to Optimize Your WordPress Blog for Search Engines
This post is designed to help you optimize your WordPress blog for search engines so that your content gets noticed.
On page optimization
- Change your Permalink structure. The default option in WordPress is to use the post id (a numeric value) as the URLs to your individual weblog posts. One of the ranking factors Google looks for is the presence of keywords in the URL. Therefore, you should change the Permalink settings to use the post title instead of the post id for the URL. This can be done in the Settings - Permalinks tab. If you include keywords into your post titles, you will get a double benefit from having them in URL.
- Install the SEO Slugs plugin. This will automatically delete stop words like "a," "the," "an," etc. from your post slugs, which is beneficial for search engine optimization.
- Install the All In One SEO Pack plugin. This tool has a lot of great features to help optimize your blog, even if you are only a beginner.
- Install the XML sitemaps plugin. While the benefit of submitting XML sitemaps to the search engines is debatable, it's generally regarded as a best practice to submit it just in case.
- Install the SEO title tags plugin. This tool optimizes the title tags across blogs or websites hosted on a WordPress platform by automatically matching the title tags to the post titles.
- Make sure you include keywords in both the titles and the content of your posts.
- Check that your theme places the important content at the top of the page. This is good practice for both users, but just as importantly for search engines. Your theme should put the content at the top, keeping sidebars and footers at the bottom - allowing crawlers to get to your content as quick as possible.
Off page optimization
- Make sure your site is clean and has quality content so that others feel good about linking to you.
- Send trackbacks to the sites and users you write about - WordPress automatically sends a trackback to other WordPress sites you link to, but if they are hosted on another platform, you need to send them by hand.
- Submit your site to web directories, submit articles to article directories, and search for niche forums where you can comment and post your link.
- Create a good relationship with other business owners by commenting on their blogs - but always on topic. Don't spam - nobody likes that.
These recommendations are just the tip of the iceberg. There are more advanced techniques to optimize your WordPress blog, but applying the advice above is the first step to ranking in the search engines.
10 Myths about SEO
There are certain myths about SEO that we want to dispel. Our top ten are as below:
1. SEO stops when your site is optimized.
In fact, SEO is an ongoing process. You can't say that "you are done" when talking about SEO. Think about it this way: would you ever stop marketing your company? It's the same with SEO. SEO does not have a deadline or a finish line.
2. Too much technology is involved.
Some people believe that humans have nothing to do with SEO and that it's all about crawlers and indexes. In fact, you need a lot of marketing skills to use SEO at its maximum. In order to find the keywords relevant to your site you must put yourself in your audience's shoes. What do they want? What do they need? Knowing your target is the core of SEO. It's true that technology is also a big part, but think of technology as the tool, rather than the means.
3. SEO has a fixed price.
There is no standard, fixed price for SEO. The cost of SEO depends on numerous factors such as the size of your business and the search behavior of users when looking for products in your industry. Perhaps the biggest factor in determining the cost of implementing effective SEO is the competitiveness of your industry. There are only 10 spots on the first page of Google for any given query, and every one of your competitors wants to be one of them. In order to outrank your competitors, you will need to hiring a better SEO consultant and put in more effort in carrying out your SEO plan, which is often correlated with a higher cost.
4. It all happens on my website.
It is true that some of your SEO efforts take place on your site. But there are also a lot of things you do for SEO that happen outside your site, like directories, link building, and article submission.
5. It's a 9-to-5 job
SEO has no time schedule. Sometimes nothing happens, other times you're in 24 hours straight. You know the internet doesn’t shut down when you log off, right?
6. A high position in the SERPs page is all I need.
It's not all you need; of course it's important and desired, but that doesn't mean you shouldn’t focus on the quality of your content. It's great that the search engines like you, but it's also important that the people visiting your site like you and remember to visit you in the future!
7. If I'm a market leader, there's no need for SEO.
A good reputation in the business is great, but that alone isn’t enough to get you to the top of Google’s results list. Many business owners think that being a market leader offline means they will be a leader online as well, but in SEO, you need to work hard no matter what your market position is.
8. It all happens very fast.
Even if you apply all the right SEO techniques, results may arrive slowly, so be patient!
9. Keyword density is the key.
Some business owners think that a high keyword density is the recipe for success, but this is erroneous! "Keyword stuffing” defeats the purpose of SEO and can even get you banned from Google's index.
10. Google is the key for success.
We stress the importance of Google in our posts because it is the market leader. But please don’t let our focus keep you from fully utilizing Yahoo!, Bing or any other search engines that hold an important market share in your region, like Baidu or Yandex.
How Does Google Work?
We have explained how users search the Internet. But how does Google know what to display on it's search result page? And where does Google's information come from?
Google's mechanism
Google can carry out parallel processing so that many calculations and algorithms can be performed simultaneously. This means faster speeds and quicker results. Keep in mind that Google is a smart, well-oiled machine with three parts, Googlebot, Indexer, and Query Processor.
- Googlebot
Googlebot is Google's Web crawler. A Web crawler, also known as a spider, is a program or automated script that browses the internet. Spiders can reach billions of interconnected pages simply by following the links they find. These backlinks indicate inbound traffic to a Web site. A Web site's popularity is measured by the number and quality of pages linking to it. All the pages Googlebot finds are handed over to Google's indexer.
- The indexer.
Googlebot gives the indexer the full text of the pages it finds. These pages are stored in Google’s index database alphabetically. To improve search performance, Google doesn’t index stop words (such as “the,” “is,” “on,” “or,” “of,” “how,” “and,” “why” etc.) since they are very common and only do so much to narrow a search.
- The Query Processor
The query processor has several parts: the user interface (which is the search box we all know and love), the “engine” that evaluates queries and matches them to relevant documents, and the part that converts all the results into something that a user can read.
Page Rank
Page Rank is Google’s system for ranking Web pages. A higher Page Rank indicates that Google considers the site to be more authoritative and therefore more likely to offer quality information to users. Google calculates a site's Page Rank using a complex algorithm based on the number and quality of the inbound links to a given site. Having a high Page Rank does not ensure that you will rank high in search results. Google still must determine that your site is relevant to the users query.
You’ll find a more elaborate analysis of how Google works pasted below.
Infographic by the Pay Per Click Blog.
Now that you know what internet users are looking for and how Google works, we can begin a more in-depth analysis of what you can do to make Google your best friend.
How People Search On the Internet
You might think there is no secret as to how people search for things on Google. Actually, it is a very complex process and, if you understand it, along with how Google works, you have taken your firsts steps in understanding SEO.
Types of searches.
There are three main types of searches people engage in, classified by intent: informational, navigational and transactional.
1. Users need information. They need to find out the answer to a question, or if it's going to rain, or the rules to a card game. This is called an informational search. This has value for the business owner in that they can easily become transactional. The user starts from a vague question on a topic that can latter become more detailed.
2. Users sometimes search for a web address. Maybe they know the name of a company, or a few details about it, but they don't know the exact web address. This is a navigational search. A navigational search is not to be overlooked: it's very important to be found on Google when your company's name is searched for, some companies tend to forget that.
3. One of the most common uses of the Internet, and one that companies hope for, is when an user wants to make a purchase. Users want to either buy something, or create an account on some page, or go eat out, or go see a movie. This is called a transactional search. Out of all these types of queries, the transactional one is the one that is most likely to bring you a client. Whether they buy something online from you, or they visit your restaurant, the user has already made the decision to purchase.
Users who go online and do a transactional search take more time than the other users. When they do a navigational search, once they find out the site's name, they stop searching and they start browsing through that site - even if, as they search for it, they sometimes click on something else, out of curiosity. And when they do an informational search, they usually find out the answer to their question in a few clicks. But to buy something takes time.
A transactional search can has more stages. They research products, compare offers, read terms and conditions, often over the course of days, if not longer. 30% of internet transactions actually take place more than 24 hours after the initial search.
Also, only 43% of the users made a purchase on their first visit on a site. Don't think that, if they clicked your result on the search result page, it is done. Sometimes, it's very important to plan on more complex interactions with your users, in time.
Terms users search for
Search behavior varies between users and the stage of the user in the sales funnel. Inexperienced users use gene4ric queries. Once they understand how the results are generated, and once they get a better idea of what they want, their searches get longer (3-4 words) and more specific.
Early in the transactional search, they type general queries. Let's say they want to buy a digital camera, so they type "digital camera" in the search bar. Later, as they learn more about digital cameras and understand what they need, their search gets very specific: "Canon A510 digital SLR camera" .
You need to optimize your site for every stage of this funnel. Not every user searches for something in particular and not every user knows exactly what they are looking for. Search is such a big part of our lives, that it is sometimes used as a recreational activity. You need to keep your possibilities open, so that you can get more clients, even if their original intent wasn't to make an acquisition.
How users see and click on the results
Once the search engine's result page is displayed, all users have a similar reaction: they skim the page from right to left, just like when they read and their eyes go from left to right, then from the top to the bottom, describing almost an F shaped figure with their eyes. That means that the most interesting point in the page is top left. And that is why first results on the page are important.
Only a small percent of the users go to more than three pages of results to find what they are looking for and 62% of them click on a search result on the first page. 88% of the people searching that have reached the third page go back and change the search terms. This goes to show how important it is to optimize your site so that it appears on the first page.
Conclusion
Understanding your audience is the key for your success, and once you know how your target searches for services or products, you will better understand how to address them. The next step is to understand how search engines work in determining which site is the most relevant for a query.
Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important?
Many people who activate in the SEO industry forget one important thing: when addressing someone who is clueless about Internet and how it works, the first questions that pop into mind are: why is SEO important and why should I invest in it?
Google's importance
Someone I know told me: "In 2010, everybody answers a question with a link". The thing is, to get to that link, you first have to google your question. Did I say "to google"?. Yes - It was officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary on June 15, 2006. This shows that searching for something on the Internet has become part of our lives, whether we like it or not. And just having a site for your business is not nearly enough. You need traffic, awareness, recognition. You need to be there where everybody goes for answers: the search engines.
We will mostly refer to Google when we mention a search engine, since Google holds 65% of the market share in the US and, in other countries, like Romania, for example, it's market share is well above 90%. A user searches on Google for something. After typing the query in the search bar and hitting "enter", a bunch of results show up. What happens from now on is very important for your business. You will now see that being online is not everything, you need to be on that page of results, preferably among the top results. How do you achieve that? You either pay for it, using AdWords, or you invest in SEO.
SEO's advantage: Low Customer Acquisition cost
But for AdWords, you pay for every visitor to your site. And the cost of a visitor is rising quickly as more and more businesses target the same potential customers. SEO, on the other hand, is a fixed investment. And, if done right, can lead to enormous amounts of vistors at no incremental cost. You must convince Google that your website is the one the user is seeking. This is what SEO is all about: learning how Google determines which sites are relevant, and then making sure your site best fits those criteria.
Reaching More People Who Can Become Customers
Google logs 2 billion searches every day. 62% of the people that engage in those searches do not go any further than the first page, and 55% click on the very first result. It's vital for you to be on this first page and do your best to be in the top 5 results.
Building Brand Credibility
36% of users consider that seeing a company listed at the top of a search page makes them think that that company is one of the best in its field. This goes to prove how much SEO can help you to inspire users with trust. People trust those who are high in the list with results. They feel that those websites are good at what they do, and that they care about the online user.
Now you know why SEO is important. Next, you will find out how to use it to your advantage.
Google logs 2 billion searches a day
Google Launches “Analyse Competition” in AdWords
At the beginning of June, 2010, Google launched a new feature, Analyze competition as a part of the AdWord's Opportunities tab. The feature is currently only available to a subset of users, but is planned to be a central part of AdWords after its full release.
Analyzing one's competition is not only useful, but also vital in every marketing campaign. However, performing such analysis has historically been difficult because of the lack of visibility into competitors campaigns. AdWords Analyze competition is meant to ease this problem by providing more data to users. You can evaluate the evolution of your campaign and compare it to the one of your main competitors.
Analyse Competition examines your account's activity for the last two weeks, categorizing the products or the services that you are promoting through your AdWords Campaign. These categories are based on the terms that the regular user searches for on the search engines and they are strategically placed next to the corresponding terms from your keywords, ads and text from the landing page. For every category that is associated with your account, you will see a graphic that shows your performance, compared to the median performance realized by other advertisers in the same categories.
When you hover over the info that appear in the Competitive Range column, you are able to see more details:
- the medium and maximum level of performance that were achieved in that particular category;
- info in the first and last advertisers that have had results in this category ;
- the CTR for the competition;
- the number of clicks that have received for an ad;
- you can select your competitors location, for a more detailed report.
All the data presented is anonymous and you will not be able to see your competitor's names, and also they will not be able to see yours.
Google offers some tips on how to benefit from this feature:
- show initiative – click on Explore Ideas and see how you can use your budget more efficiently;
- constantly evaluate your goals and do not consider that having better results than the competition is your main objective; you can't have great results in a category that, for your business, is a secondary one;
- check the evolution of your campaigns and, if you notice one that has very bad results, try to improve it.
By evaluating your competition's campaigns, you can learn from their successes - and failures, without incurring the expense that comes from you testing their methods yourself.
Two SEO Questions About The Use of no follow and rel=canonical
At the beginning of June,2010, Eric Enge from SEOmoz interviewed Nick Gerner, Ben Hendrickson and Rand Fishkin, regarding the Linkscape Index. It's a pretty large and complex interview that you can read here, but for this particular article we're going to discuss about the final part of the interview, that related to no follow attribute and rel=canonical. The questions discussed here are: why don't more people give up using the first one and why does the number of people using the last one keeps increasing.
A canonical page is the preferred version of a set of pages that basically have the same content. If, for example, you have a number of pages that display the same set of products, but in a different order every time, Google will usually index only one of these pages, based on what they think is the most representative one. But if you add the rel=canonical attribute, like this: <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/product.php?item=exemplu"/> and you put the element in <head>, this tells Google that you want this particular page to be regarded as the original one.
No follow is an HTML attribute value that basically instructs search engines not to crawl the link, so that link juice is not lost. However, these days, the procedure for sharing link juice has changed a bit. In the past, if you had a page rank of 10 and you gave 5 links on your page, each link had an equal amount of PR shared: 2.5, 2.5, 2.5, 2.5 and 2.5. If, out of these 10, you chose 3 and you marked those 3 with no follow, then the remaining 2 links both got 5 and 5 PR each. But today, this has changed in so that, even if you mark those three links with no follow, the remaining two get 2.5 and 2.5 PR each. The main difference is that those 3 links with no follow do not receive PR at all.
Now that the main elements of this article have been explained, let's return to the interview. Nick Gerner feels that, even though no follow use still shown no sign of decreased use, using rel=canonical is more widely used than before.
Matt Cutts from Google also feels that it's a very good idea to use rel=canonical, and that it should even be used on each page of the site, since it offers some protection from people giving out weird links and helps you stay away from duplicate content. Rand Fishkin actually thinks that rel=canonical in”absolutely phenomenal” and that it should actually be used by default, since it also offers protection from people adding non-relevant tags to your pages.
On the other hand, no follow attribute is still widely used, because, as Nick Gerner feels, people are still not familiarized with the new way Google decided to share PR and that they are afraid that they can somehow hurt the site if they give up on using no follow. Rand Fishkin thinks that no follow is mostly used on the principle that, if it works, why change it?
The general opinion (and hope) is that the new sites that are being built right now are aware of the advantages there are on giving up on no follow, as opposed to sites launched in the past and site owners that still think that, if they do not use no follow, they lose PR. Rel=canonical, on the other hand, is very popular nowadays, more and more sites are using it and that's why, as these pages get indexed, the use of this attribute is spreading more and more. It is obvious for people what the advantages are if they are using rel=canonical, as explained above. But it is still not clear what the advantages are if site owners give up on using no follow, and this is the point that needs to be addressed.