SEO Blog

Google Chrome Launched

September 9, 2008 | Google, Search Engine News

It’s Google’s 10th birthday. Think about that Google in 10 years has come to dominate search and become a leading technology provider challenging the likes of Microsoft and Apple - not bad for a company that can’t even spell it’s own name correctly! Google have also recently launched a new browser to the market called Chrome, which is a huge surprise in many ways and not at all in others. Google are ultimately Google and it’s no surprise given the recent history of what they’ve been doing and investing in.

It is a surprise for many other reasons. There are already three some would say four browsers on the market. We have Internet Explorer hooked into the dominant PC platform, Windows, and it’s no wonder why it dominates. Then there’s Firefox, a far superior browser design, variant of the failed Mozilla, the browser of choice for techies and webmasters largely because of it’s userability with plug ins. Then we have Apple’s Safari, recently launched on Windows the prime browser for Mac’s. Then there’s Opera.

Firefox has about a 20% market share, Safari has a tiny fraction but overtime will probably snail like slowly gain more share. Opera really doesn’t register in the grand scheme of things. Then not surprising, particularly given the recent history of all three search engines that for Google, Chrome’s primary objective is to put a massive dent in Microsoft’s dominance of the browser market.
Dispatch the foe has to be Google’s primary business objective.

Google currently support the Firefox project and have stated this will continue which confirms the previous point. Indeed Chrome actually uses bits of technology from Firefox and Apple. If you read our blog on a regular basis you’ll know how Microsoft is struggling in the search market, hence the failed attempt to buy Yahoo. Makes sense then for Google to have a pop at the dominance of Microsoft in another market. Can Chrome succeed?

Possibly. IE’s total dominance is in the fact that Windows comes pre-packaged with IE, it’s usability however is shocking. When Microsoft won the browser wars and put Mozilla to the sword it’s development stopped which we see still in versions 5.5 and 6.0, web designers were in uproar and are still struggling with the implications today in some respects, Microsoft didn’t care, after all they’d won. Recent attempts have been made with 7.0 to make sure it’s usability and performance aren’t totally shocking compared to Firefox, once Firefox came onto the scene and Microsoft realised they had to do something, which ultimately has meant IE has turned into a poor Firefox clone. Google however when Chrome was launched cunningly put a link from the Google homepage, the most viewed homepage on the web, to download it.

Chrome ultimately is branded as a different, more modern browser. Browsers haven’t much developed from when they first came on the scene, then they just displayed text documents, with images added latter. Much of today’s web particularly social sites make use of more modern media such as video and flash. Chrome is designed primarily to display (load) this content quicker. Site’s programming has become complex particularly with the recent popularity of AJAX in web 2.0 applications and Chrome is designed to load the code of the more complex sites quicker. Chrome if you like is the web 2.0 browser and on that basis alone it can possibly succeed. Chromes other features are:

• It’s open source
• Simple tab layout
• Dynamic Tabs
• Crash Control Management
• Importing Settings
• Simple Downloading

It’s more impressive features are:

Google Search is neatly added to the nav bar, now visit Google without visiting Google.
Create Shortcuts to applications, nicely tied in with Google Gears to enhance offline experience.
Incognito Mode - this is very interesting, you can stop all the spy features in websites such as cookie creation. The important question is are then Google’s own spy features disabled? Economically it makes sense for Google to enhance these not disable them. Privacy is currently a big issue in the US with law makers. Do Google care? Probably not, however the Google - Yahoo Adsense deal is another issue. Google may have well added this feature to Chrome to give it some leeway. A compromise on Privacy would be beneficial to push the Adsense deal through.

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SEO Targeted Marketing Helps You Rank Higher And Sell Products

September 3, 2008 | SEO

Most people believe that SEO is only the use of certain words that are supposed to help you get a better ranking in the search engines. To a degree this is true, but lots of times we become so focused on those words and getting that high ranking that we lose the meaning of the content and we lose the interest of readers. The information we are trying to transmit is becoming unreadable and extremely boring.

So what is SEO anyway? SEO is the algorithm that webmasters use to improve the way the search engines see the website. The purpose is to improve a websites rankings and ring in more traffic. But SEO is changing and now its no longer just about using the right words to get a site in the right rank, now its about getting quality content too, something that readers may actually be interested in and interested in learning about.

The objective is to find the right kind of reader, the one that is interested in what you have to say and what your product is. This is called SEO targeted marketing. So you need to get relevant, interesting, and fresh information on your site. You want readers that are interested in your product and not in something that doesn’t have to do with what you are selling because you won’t be able to keep that type of reader.

SEO target marketing focuses on giving your reader the information you need and ranking your site for the actual words that are relevant to your product.

So the traffic you get to your site will be because the information you give is related to your actual product and is useful information. This makes you appear like the expert and will produce more sales for you. SEO targeted marketing helps you get interested visitors to your product and keeps those interested visitors returning.

Once you have managed to get interested visitors to your site by showing that you are an expert in your field, offering useful information, then those visitors are ready to be converted to buyers.

When you market online you always want to pay attention to SEO, but only SEO for the market you want and for the people that may be interested in your product.

Balance your content and your SEO efforts and you will get ranked for the right keywords and you will convert readers into buyers. You will stand out as the expert in the field.

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Google following no follows

September 3, 2008 | Google, Link Building, SEO

No follow is very simple, at least that’s what we fought.  Stick a no nofollow relation tag in a link then not only would Google not follow the link it also wouldn’t pass any Page Rank or Link Juice.

Not the case anymore.  For a while we’ve heard underground stories that Google wasn’t strictly complying with the no follow rule.  We’ve also began to see this in our  own projects yet Google seemed to be experimenting with how to use no follow, rather than following set rules.  Recently we’ve spotted some hard and fast reasons why Google is now following no follows.

Since no follow was brought out I’ve been waiting for Google to create an exception rule.  After all it makes sense as it has swapped one big problem and made it into a far greater one.  No follow is an attempt to purge the web of all the useless links on the web.  It’s heavily open to abuse,  now Webmasters wasting their time doing numerous link swaps for Page Rank purposes have to be aware of the abuse that no follow opens them up to.  Despite the simplicity of no follow and the fact that it has been around for a while, there are plenty of webmasters who aren’t fully aware of it’s implications.  Even then it’s a pain checking each link.

It’s no surprise Google have taken this tack.  No follow goes against the very nature of the web, that is a library of related documents.  It also goes against the nature of Page Rank,  one link equals one democratic vote. Is it really fair to pick and choose which links your democratically voting for?  A link is after all a link and if you don’t want Google to follow a link then why is it there in the first place? We now also have a new breed of marketer who’s clogging up the net with more worthless links.

In a ironic turn of events a Californian couple recently sued Google for following a no follow sign to their house and publishing a picture of it via Google Street View in Google Maps. Following No follows seems like a new trend!

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The Long Tail

August 29, 2008 | Long Tail, SEO

Naturally I read a fair bit about SEO and internet marketing. Most, particulary what relates to SEO falls into three categories, it’s either:

• So fanicful it makes the Disney film Enchanted look autobiographical
• Confusing, does the writer even understanding what they’re saying let alone the reader
• Plain incorrect

There’s quite a bit I read about SEO, even popular stuff, that either comes with an agenda, makes wildly incorrect statements or covers a lack of knowledge by using confusing names that neither the reader or author seem to understand. Some things alarm me, it’s not unusual for me when speaking with a potential client to have to reinvent the light bulb by debugging their knowledge of SEO which in some cases can be nonsense. To be honest it’s people like me, that is SEO’s, who take the brunt of that responsibility. You here something said enough times, you think it must be true.

What I keep hearing most frequently is that Long Tail Optimisation is always, that’s without fail, the way to go. If someone had given me a pound, or even a dollar, for every time I heard this I wouldn’t be writing this right now. SEO’s have really caught the Long Tail bug haven’t they? It’s not hard to think why that is?

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Long Tail, for several reasons the most important being that it actually simplifies SEO and it used to debunk the very thing I’m pointing out. However it’s now come full circle. Long Tail Strategies can often be the most effective strategy in not just SEO but also Internet Marketing, however if you read that statement the truth of it is in the word can and although vital in most cases (not all!) is not always the most effective strategy. I read a post in one of my favourite networking sites recently that made it sound like the first law of SEO is always long tail. Like I say often it is, but is not always the case. Ultimately it depends on many factors including who your market is, the reach, size and other details of a company.

If your new to our blog then let me introduce you to my number one rule, that is if you get the keywords wrong then you get the whole project wrong, if not it’s always good to hear it repeated and I don’t apologise for that. We’re currently building up quite a reputation for fixing messes, quite often the Long Tail is the root of this problem, I wonder if most of the problems with SEO nowadays stem from all we hear about the Long Tail. On several projects that have come in, in the last few weeks our research has told us that Long Tail keywords are not the most commercially viable to use in particular circumstances, this is not just one or two either. Issues with the Long Tail, stem from a poor understanding of what Long Tail actually means and how what it applies. I’m not going to repeat what others more qualified have said, an excellent article on the subject which is transparently clear is here, I highly recommend you read it.

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Google Suggest rolls out

August 26, 2008 | Google, Search Engine News

Google Suggest has fully rolled out.  Suggest does what you think it does, that is suggests keyword terms as you type into the keyword box.

Suggest is actually “Graduating” as the Google Blog puts it from Labs.  Labs is responsible for much of the cool things that Google produces nowadays.  Google employees that come up with the best ideas are allowed to focus on those ideas 20% of the time until they are either dropped or work their way up to the Lab stage and finally become fully integrated services.

Suggest has three main key functions:

• Provide a list of possible better queries
• Reduce spelling errors
• Save time with less keystrokes.

According to Google  Suggest will be rolling out fully throughout this week.

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