Yet Another Move by Google to Enhance Social Media's Role in Search

Friday, February 18, 2011

As we have written about before, Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) is creeping into the world of search.  It makes perfect sense, really.  A big part of Google's traditional algorithm is evaluating how many links come into a web site, and who those links are from.  Think of it as peer review.  

But in that scenario, the "peers" are other web sites, not people you know.  Ah, but the people I know are all on my social networks.  What if Google and the other search engines could know who my friends are and then cross reference what they like when giving me answers to my queries?

That is precisely what they are doing with the announcement of Social Search (see Google's blog post here). 

This isn't an entirely new product.  Previously, Google announced the incorporation of similar things in the SERPS, but this takes it to a new level. 

Conspicuously missing from Google's Social Search, however, is Facebook.   The two companies have not been playing nice lately (Facebook has been raiding Google's best employees, and recently Google stopped allowing Facebook to access its users Gmail accounts, etc), and I assume that is a factor in all of this.  But for Social Search to really have an impact, it is going to need to include Facebook eventually, and I am sure that it will.  (The other scenario, which is certainly possible, is that Facebook will finally add a SEARCH feature that only shows results from your connections). 

The bottom line is this:  search is changing, and it is obvious that it is moving towards a much more customizable and socially based system.  If your business isn't yet listed on the Social Sites, soon you might find yourself no longer listed on most people's search results either. 

MORE INFORMATION:

Why A Business Should Be On Facebook


A Video From Google About Their Social Search Update:

Posted by {Omnipresent SEO} Friday, February 18, 2011 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Great Article in the New York Times "The Dirty Little Secrets of Search"

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Yesterday's New York Times had a great article about the SEO tactics employed by JC Penney's SEO Company that initially vaulted the JC Penney web site to the top of the Google rankings, but that eventually were then flagged by Google as being in violation of their rules. 

This brings to mind something we always talk about with our clients:  short term versus long term gain. 
As the article demonstrates, using some of these "black hat" SEO tactics can certainly work.  JC Penney was showing up #1 in the Search Results for searches of "Samsonite", "skinny jeans," "area rug," and hundreds, if not thousands, more keywords.  If you had asked JC Penney a few weeks ago if the strategy was paying off, I'm sure they would have called it an unqualified success.  And why not?  As the NYT article mentions, a JC Penny spokesperson was crowing about the company's December sales, saying “Internet sales through jcp.com posted strong growth in December, with significant increases in traffic and orders for the key holiday shopping periods of the week after Thanksgiving and the week before Christmas.”

But now the celebration is over.   Google is on to JC Penney, and suddenly they aren't ranking #1 for much anymore.  In fact, in many cases they aren't on the top10 PAGES anymore.  Worse, they will now probably be put under a much higher scrutiny by Google, which will make their future SEO campaigns all the more dangerous.  Even a well-meaning campaign can cross the line occasionally, which normally is never even noticed, let alone punished.  Recitative black-hat behavior, however, would seem a much more punishable offense. 

The December sales results notwithstanding, it is hard to say that JC Penney got what it paid for.  The thousands of links they purchased are no longer of any value.  I'm sure they spent a lot of money, and today they have nothing to show for it. 

Properly executed SEO is a much slower, more genuine process.   The goal should be to make a web site the most user-friendly, valuable resource for users.  If you provide users with invaluable information, the links, the rankings, the traffic and the page rank will follow.  It can take years to establish such a strong site, but when you perform SEO like this, it makes it much harder to get knocked off your pedestal.  It's a lesson JC Penney learned the hard way. 

But now the celebration is over.   Google is on to JC Penney, and suddenly they aren't ranking #1 for much anymore.  In fact, in many cases they aren't on the top10 PAGES anymore.  Worse, they will now probably be put under a much higher scrutiny by Google, which will make their future SEO campaigns all the more dangerous.  Even a well-meaning campaign can cross the line occasionally, which normally is never even noticed, let alone punished.  Recitative black-hat behavior, however, would seem a much more punishable offense. 

The December sales results notwithstanding, it is hard to say that JC Penney got what it paid for.  The thousands of links they purchased are no longer of any value.  I'm sure they spent a lot of money, and today they have nothing to show for it. 
Properly executed SEO is a much slower, more genuine process.   The goal should be to make a web site the most user-friendly, valuable resource for users.  If you provide users with invaluable information, the links, the rankings, the traffic and the page rank will follow.  It can take years to establish such a strong site, but when you perform SEO like this, it makes it much harder to get knocked off your pedestal.  It's a lesson JC Penney learned the hard way. 

Posted by {Omnipresent SEO} Sunday, February 13, 2011 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink