#EANF#
Rant and Rave About Google
The SearchI recently purchased a book called “The Search” by John Battelle that explores how Google and its rivals rewrote the rules of business and transformed our culture. What really caught my attention was Chapter 7 titled The Search Economy. It related how a small e-commerce store got yanked by the short-hairs when Google made an unexpected algorithm change in 2003 virtually wiped out their business.Google did it again in late 2005, and will no doubt do it again and again and again. Rumor has it that it will happen again in March 2006. Google Giveth, Google Taketh AwayThose of you who are webmasters already know how this happens. Some eager beaver group of Google engineers laid waste to thousands of mom and pop businesses by tweaking Google’s indexing algorithm. These businesses depended on their Google listings for their income and livelihoods. Google giveth and Google taketh away.Knowing that the Google paradigm will always change puts you ahead of the pack; not putting all your marketing eggs in one basket will keep you there.Your unpaid or “organic” rankings in search engines are free. But how many times have you heard the axiom “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”Starting to get the picture now? Google Still Likes LinksI’ve been getting tons of automated requests for two-way and three-way linking. I can’t believe what these people are thinking. The rules are displayed in black and white on Google’s web site. Allow me to paraphrase “Build pages for users, not search engines.”Here’s a typical email I get every day:Hello Sir/Madam,I’m mailing you for exchanging three-way link with your site. Though we are accustomed with reciprocal link exchange, the fact is that three-way link is always better than reciprocal link exchange, as all search engines give more attention to three-way links.When search engines can’t trace a link back from one site to another it thinks that site is very important so other site is linking to it just like we use Google or yahoo in our website.Do these bozos really believe this?Fact of the matter is you should link to a website that you believe will be of value to your website viewer’s. That’s it. No schemes, no tricks, no 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 way linking. Provide your visitors good content and good links. Period. Vertical Channels and DirectoriesWeb sites like Global Spec (for engineers) and Find Law (for lawyers) are quasi-vertical advertising channels and global directories. Vertical marketing is a great way to target business in the same genre that you practice and participate. It’s also a great way for regional companies to inexpensively obtain entry into new markets or regions.For web guys like myself, there are similar verticals or directories such as Marketing Tool, Xemion, and Top Web Designers. But here’s the rub. These directories have an unfair advantage in the linking scheme of Google. But who said life is fair.Directories have “muddied the Internet waters.” With so many links from so many sites across so many states, it is the equivalent of being a 500-pound linking gorilla. I keep hoping that the next Google dance will place these linking monsters accordingly, but that has yet to happen. Once everyone catches onto this flawed “link ranking” scheme, a search for any term or phrase in Google will provide you nothing but a page full of directories. Pure SearchThis leads to my next point. Say I have an xyz disease (God forbid). If I search “xyz disease nutrition” in Google, I want to find web sites about xyz disease nutrition, or battling xyz disease with proper diet and so on. I don’t want to see a directory full of re-packaged information, filled with ads, newsletters and other useless directory fluff.I want my search engine to emulate the Library of Congress. Let’s say the librarian says, “Books on xyz disease nutrition are located on isle 700b” on row 3. I stroll over to 700b row 3 and pull out a book that systematically lists all the books on 700b, row 3. Wait a second! This isn’t a book about xyz disease nutrition, it’s a “directory” or reference book that belongs in the “reference section” of the library.Are you listening Google?Maybe Mr. Gates is. Or better yet maybe Mr. Jobs has a trick or two left up his sleeve.
iPod.com today iSearch.com tomorrow.
How Social Media Allies and Upsides Your SEO Efforts?
SMM and Search Engine Optimization are usually given a separate space in the digital marketing arena.
And, quite reasonably, they are the two most decisive factors in the online marketing sphere.
But what we fail to understand is why many businesses do not acknowledge social media marketing as one of SEO’s most influential allies.
Do we intend to say that social media directly encourages your Search engine rankings?
The simple answer could be NO!
You must recognize that social metrics like Facebook likes and Twitter followers indicate social profile authority but have no hand in directly circumscribing the search engine rankings.
Surely, our straightforward answer is confusing. However, we completely believe that SEO and smo are powerful collaborators whose association must be leveraged for digital marketing success.
Let’s dig deeper and express how SMM can merit and warrant your SEO strategy.
The Relationship Between Social Metrics & SEO
Let’s assume that there might have been experiments conducted in the past that determine the use of social-media metrics such as social mentions and engagement level for search engine rankings.
But due to the unpredictable and unstable nature of smo and the weak signals generated, professionals might have dropped the attempts.
This was well elaborated by Matt Cutts back in 2014 in a Webmasters video. He was the Head of Google’s Webspam Team back then, and he revealed that social media provided incomplete signals.
Also, search engine algorithms can’t ascertain the reliability and authority of the smo posts and the profile.
Nevertheless, is there an Indirect way that social media influences search engine rankings?
And, this was embellished in the Cutt’s video itself.
He said that Google treats all social media websites like any other website on the Internet, which means that the same rules apply to Facebook, Twitter and so on as it applies to other websites.
Benefits of Social Media for Business
A Linkable Opportunity
As most social media consists of links to other websites, site owners and content creators can use it to promote their content.
You can employ a particular mixture of organic and paid promotions strategy to maximize your audience base.
Here’s how this happens-
As you use social media, there might have been countless times that some articles impacted you.
The impression an article made is evident in the things you share and communicate on social media. You might often use the information from the article in your other works, giving the source article a reference.
Understand that people cannot relate to something unless they know about it. Social media gives the perfect opportunity to content creators to prompt the audience and share link-worthy content.
You might well concede that SMM has given attention to many websites and individuals who were not known before. Creating Brand Mentions
Now, suppose someone or something (brand, product, service, individual, business, etc.) that has not yet been identified by Google suddenly notices many remarks online. In that case, it will influence Google to categorize them as an “entity”.
These are some unique circumstances that can boost your search engine rankings. This is bound to the context you are being mentioned or how people are talking about you online.
Understand that you are not adjudicated for how high you rank for a thing but what you entail as an entity.
So your website might not be getting a mention for a specific thing right now, but seeing the number of people who put trust in you, they can well start recognizing your business for that particular piece.
This is called the power of positive mentions.
Nevertheless, you need to make sure that positive mentions are not just on social media but on all public forums.
You can spring your brand marketing with your true audience base and inspire positive reinforcement and communication on social media.
Social Media For Searches
You cannot miss the fact that people use social media to search for a particular product or brand, and your audience base is just not limited to Google or Bing.
As you operate Twitter, you will realize that the social media channel with its trends, hashtags, insights and other tools give you a perfect opportunity to collude with the potential customers, making your content visible to the users.
You will find similar responses to Pinterest and Instagram.
Also, if anyone wants to know more about your company, he/she will likely ascertain your presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter channels- do a quick search and decide upon if he/she wants to deal with your business or not.
In 2016 Mark Zuckerberg had mentioned that “Now people are doing more than 2 billion searches a day between looking up people, businesses, and other things they care about.”- source Techcrunch.
Facebook had earlier retreated on a semantic graph search engine and launched a true keyword search, which landed in more search queries for media channel.
Twitter, since its onset, has been the leading destination for the population to flock for searches, especially in the event of big global news. Full post search appeared to have worked for Facebook and have expedited query volume.
Changing The Idea Of SEO
We have reached the phase where SEO is not just centered till Google optimization. We need to realize that search engine optimization is extending and converging on smo.
Also, if Google has been unclear about its stand, Bing, on the other hand, has been quite positive in including social metrics in its search engine algorithms.
You may well agree that the audience that reaches the company website, lurking through digital media channels, has already interacted with the company in a very pragmatic sense.
Also, digital media gives users the capability to engage more powerfully and compellingly. Hence, it will be only effective to broaden your social, media capacities and elicit brand awareness and growth.