SearchPath Blog

Google Webmaster Help YouTube Channel

Google now has a Webmaster Central Help YouTube channel with lots of useful videos posted, mostly, by Matt Cutts. See more below.

posted by Rob Caston at 8:54 AM 0 comments links to this post

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Google introduces behavioural targeting

In a move where Google are trying to venture where others have recently failed, they have announced a move into the world of behavioural targeting. This controversial practice involves Google placing a cookie (a piece of code) onto a user's machine (and one that visits one of Google's partner sites). When that then user visits another Google partner, Google will show ads tailored specifically for that user that reflect the users' previous browsing habits. So if a user is a sports fan, and visits lots of sports sites, then when they visit another Google partner site they might be shown ads for running shoes.

Google has called this practice (on its offical blog) "interest based advertising" in an attempt to get away from the negative stigma surrounding the phrase "behavioral targeting". This negative image has been seen worldwide, as people react to the so called "Truman Show effect", where some users feel that their every movement is being tracked. In the UK advertising provider Phorm has been trying to unsuccessfully to link up with ISP's in order to introduce behavioral targeting to UK surfers. So far, privacy fears have derailed these plans.

So it is in this climate that Google, a company that is regularly accused of holding on to too much information about its users, approaches "interest based advertising".

Internet based advertising is an attempt to introduce higher click through rates into banner ads, a medium that has notoriously suffered from a lack of targeting, and thus click though rates (especially when compared to PPC search engine advertising).

Google is attempting to allay privacy concerns with its new project by making it "opt-out-able", plus giving users a range of targeting options to choose from. The buzzwords they are throwing about are "transparency", "choice" and control". It remains to be seen if Google will be able to dodge the claims about privacy. If it can circumvent these issues, then the technology has the potential of "...making ads more relevant, and improving the connection between advertisers and our users, and creating more value for everyone. Users get more useful ads, and these more relevant ads generate higher returns for advertisers and publishers." (Google's words) It would also have the added benefit of increasing Google 's currently tiny market share in the banner ad sector.

posted by Kevin Morley at 3:49 PM 0 comments links to this post

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Google "Brand Update"?

There has been a lot of talk recently in the SEO community about the update recently made by Google to its algorithm, based around the importance of brands. The first SEO blogger to tap into this algo change was Aaron Wall, on his influential SEOBook blog. In a post which has caused a lot of buzz in the SEO space, he argued, with evidence, that Google was "...promoting brands for big money core category keywords."

Wall argues that this update by Google was one of, if not the biggest since the notorious "Florida" update of 2003. Then, Google shifted its algorithm in two ways - first, it made gaming Google with basic SEO tactics much harder. The second result of the Florida update was a shift away from commercial, brand oriented results for many queries toward more information driven results (hence the virtual ominpresence of Wikipedia in many SERPs today.)

In his influential blog post Wall gives evidence, admittedly on a small scale, of searches for queries such as "airline tickets" and "auto insurance" displaying higher positions for brands after the new update took effect. In some instances he describes, 9 out of the top 10 rankings are for brands.

However, key Google blogger Matt Cutts was keen to dampen down any talk about a "brand update", saying in a YouTube video that although there had been an algorithm change recently, it was only minor (one of the hundreds of algorithm tweaks that take place every year). Cutts was keen to stress that the focus of the algorithm change was NOT a focus on brands, and that Google would not be focusing on anything like this anytime in the future.

This seems to be in direct contradiction to the position adopted by Matt Cutts's boss, Google CEO Eric Schmidt. In a recent address the technology guru clearly stated that: "The internet is fast becoming a "cesspool" where false information thrives" He stated that brands were increasingly important signals that content can be trusted: "Brands are the solution, not the problem," Mr. Schmidt said. "Brands are how you sort out the cesspool." "Brand affinity is clearly hard wired," he said. "It is so fundamental to human existence that it's not going away. It must have a genetic component."

So it seems that the information at the top of the organisation is not filtering down to the troops. Either that, or different Google departments are moving in different directions deliberately. Either way, this episode does not speak well of a Google machine that is normally so well oiled, efficient, and has everyone singing from the same hymn sheet (more or less). My guess is that Mr Schmidt, being the boss, is going to have the last call on how the Google algorithm works out, and if he supports brands, then I guess Matt Cutts and the rest of the engineers at Google will have to toe the line and follow suit.

posted by Kevin Morley at 2:10 PM 0 comments links to this post

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New site for Forefront Property

We've just launched a new website for Forefront Property, a fast growing estate agent in Swindon. We implemented a flexible width for this site, so depending on your screen resolution, you'll see the text laid out slightly differently!

The site was rebuilt primarily for search engine reasons, the old site being a classic case of being composed entirely of images, giving Google little chance of understanding and ranking the site. As an afterthought, the web designer had then stuffed a load of keywords at the foot of the page - no! Why do these people still think this is a good idea and that Google will like it! It's simple - don't do it!!

So now having rebuilt the Forefront site to be search engine friendly, within two days of its launch, Google has already ranked it at the top of the 2nd page for its keyphrases (from nowhere). It just goes to show that you just need to follow the guidelines, build sites correctly and then put in a little effort and you will get results.

With a little marketing, we expect to see top 1st page rankings shortly. And for those web designers still building sites in flash or using images and hoping to get ranked on Google....it doesn't work and stop trying to fool your clients into thinking it will work! Rant over!

posted by Rob Caston at 10:08 AM 0 comments links to this post

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Shock horror - Yahoo innovation

I was using Yahoo today (which doesn't happen very often) and I saw a couple of things they are doing in search that differentiates them from Google; things that are actually quite clever, that you would have though Google would be doing, not Yahoo. But no, Yahoo, for once, is ahead of the game.

If you type in certain football clubs or football club cities into Yahoo.co.uk, you get a small info box sat the top of the listings, giving information about the club - latest club news, their league position, details of their next match, photos, plus other info. It seems to be mainly the top Premiership clubs that are covered at the moment; see the info box for Chelsea here.

The other innovation that I noticed whilst using Yahoo recently is information provided by Yahoo when you type in a major city in the UK. When typing in Oxford, for example, you get this result. Yahoo provides a useful photo slideshow of the city, plus details of top things to do in the city, and details of hotels and restaurants in Oxford that visitors might be interested in.

Both of these features utilise a concept that Google has pioneered over the last couple of years: Universal Search. Universal Search is an attempt to break up the standard search results format that has dominated the industry since its inception in the mid 1990's. Instead of just a list of 10 text results relating to the query entered, the search engines today are including photos, video, news, maps, and now sporting and travel info into the search results. Google, as is often the case, is usually acknowledged to be the industry leader in universal search, but it would seem that with the football and travel gadgets Yahoo is catching up fast.

You have to give points to Yahoo for the way that they have innovated with their search results, and managed to integrate the univerasl search elements with existing Yahoo content (Yahoo Sport and Yahoo Travel) keeping users from leaving the Yahoo universe. My guess is that Google will try to imitate these tools in its search results soon; lets see if they do it as well as Yahoo.

posted by Kevin Morley at 10:45 AM 0 comments links to this post

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