In: Categories » Internet and online » Search engines optimization » Googles current relationship with SEOs and webmasters
Simply stated, Google is the standout leader in search today. It has the most traffic and the most new trends, and it's the only search engine with its own entry in the dictionary. Once a search-only entity, Google now offers e-mail, maps, feed readers, calendar, web analytics, and webmaster tools, not to mention a diverse menu of specialty search options, including news, video, image, blog, and local.
Google has been an all-out trendsetter in the evolution of the search space. Link popularity? Google made it hugely important. Integration of specialty search results within standard results?
Thank Google. A website's age being a factor in its ranking? Blame Google. We'll go into the details throughout the article, but let's face it: The world of SEO is playing Follow the Leader, and Google's at the head of the line. Google Analytics, the free and robust website traffic analysis tool, has been widely adopted since its launch in 2005. This was arguably the single most important development in SEO in recent years, because it gave the world's website owners the ability to easily measure conversions. This has precipitated a shift in the collective SEO mind-set to valuing conversions, not ranks, as the most important metric.
The current hot topics around Google are its mission expansions: From TV to voicemail to the supermarket aisles, the big G is everywhere. Ambitious lately? Staying on top of the long, and ever-lengthening, list of services Google offers can be overwhelming for a website owner. But you don't need to, as long as you focus on the services your target audience cares about. Most people are still using Google at its most basic level, typing a phrase in the search box, and seeing what results come up.
Google's current relationship with SEOs and webmasters has its points of light along with some black holes. SEOs appreciate the monitoring and management options available through the Webmaster Tools service and outreach by corporate representatives via blogs, forums, and conferences, but many SEOs kvetch about Google becoming too powerful. One topic that really brings out the bristle is Google's announcement in 2007 that paid links (inbound links that are purchased in an attempt to improve search engine ranks) should be reported to Google, presumably so that Google can mete out negative consequences. Besides feeling that the web community shouldn't become snitches, many people consider this preferential (“Why aren't Yahoo! Directory links considered paid links?”) or illogical (“Isn't there payment of some sort labor or money or favors involved in all web marketing efforts?”).
Even as you gobble up the free tools, services, and advice from Google, remember that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Google is a for-profit company, and an incredibly powerful one at that. Google will look after Google and, in doing so, may make policy changes that can create seismic shifts in website owners' lives. It's always best to create your site for your users, not for what you think will cause Google to rank you higher this week.
PageRank, ShmageRank
Google's PageRank is a measurement of a page's worth based on the quantity and quality of both incoming and outgoing links.The concept behind PageRank is that each link to a page constitutes a vote, and Google has a sophisticated and automated way of tallying these votes, which includes looking at a vast universe of interlinking pages. Google awards PageRank on a scale of 0 to 10; a PageRank value of 10 is the most desirable and extremely rare. Like the Richter scale, the Page- Rank scale is not linear, so the difference between 4 and 5 is much greater than the difference between 3 and 4.
More often than not, pages with high PageRank have higher Google rankings than pages with low PageRank. And therein lies the link obsession.Throughout the SEO community, the scrambling for, trading, and even selling of links became such a focus over the past several years that Google modified its system and began to devalue certain kinds of links. It's widely accepted, for example, that links from content-deficient “link farm”websites do not improve a page's PageRank, and getting a link from a page with high PageRank but irrelevant content (say, a popular comic book site that links to a forklift specifications page) won't either. Google now displays updated PageRank values at infrequent intervals to discourage constant monitoring. It's good to get links to your site, but obsessive link building to the point of excluding other areas of SEO is a waste of time. Keep a holistic head on your shoulders and remember these points:
- Google's ranking algorithm is not based entirely on inbound links.
- A high PageRank does not guarantee a high Google rank.
- A PageRank value viewed today may be months old.
PageRank is still a fairly good indication of how Google regards your website's pages, and you'll learn how to gather your own measurements in Your SEO Plan. But in the Right Now of SEO, think of PageRank as a hobby, not a religion.
The Best of the Rest: Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, AOL
Taken as a group, the major non-Google search engines that we're about to discuss make up about 40 percent of the search engine market, which means they deserve your attention. Non-Google search engines allow you to fill out your website's presence so that it is not overly dependent on rankings on a single site (what was that expression, something about eggs… and a basket?). Now, we'll fill you in on what you need to know about the search engines other than Google:
- Yahoo!
- MSN/Live Search
- Ask
- AOL
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (yes, the exclamation point is part of its name a bane to copy editors everywhere) is one of the oldest and still one of the best-known search engines. Already an established directory when Google was still in diapers, Yahoo! has now settled into the #2 spot. Nevertheless, with its considerable legacy and the muscle to expand its offerings through corporate purchases (acquisitions of the popular photo-sharing site Flickr, e-mail and collaboration tool Zimbra, and news site BuzzTracker show a continuing interest in the new and hip), Yahoo! is a force to be reckoned with.
While Yahoo! is gradually losing market share in comparison to Google, its absolute search traffic numbers are still holding steady, with roughly 2 billion searches in the second half of 2007. Yahoo! has generated many headlines with its mercurial existence of late: A burst of acquisitions, innovation, leadership changes, and potential buyouts keeps industry watchers bracing for a big search earthquake, and wondering how the landscape will look when it's over.
Nobody knows what the future will hold, but we do know this: Yahoo!'s healthy share of traffic and untapped potential will continue to be a driving force in this industry, no matter who's at the wheel.
The Search Engine Soap Operas
While we were writing this article,Microsoft made a bid to buy Yahoo!, and the search world was thrown for a loop.The combination of MSN and Yahoo! search properties, which some are calling “Microhoo,”would result in a search engine with substantial reach, power, and media content one that could compete with Google.This is big news, even to those of us who have been watching search engine acquisitions for years.
How do dramas such as this affect Your SEO Plan? Fortunately, you don't need to follow every twist and turn of every story. Because we focus on user friendliness, good targeting, and great content, the SEO plan in this article will help you create strategies that are robustly search-friendly, no matter what changes may come.Tactics that are specific to a certain search engine are labeled as such, and if consolidation strikes, a firm grip on the Eternal Truths “Eternal Truths of SEO,” will help you maintain your website's standings for the long haul.
MSN/Live Search
In case you didn't know, the MSN portal and its search engine, called Live Search, is a property of a quaint little organization known as “Microsoft Corp.” The youngest of the big search engines, MSN's modus operandi has been an ongoing game of copycat and catch-up as it tried to bring its interface and feature set up to the standards Google and Yahoo! have set. Then, in 2008, Microsoft abruptly switched tactics to “if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em” and made a bid to purchase Yahoo!.
Live Search is not entirely user friendly; in fact, it gets a lot of negative coverage by gloating SEOs who love to point out its many bugs and errors. But its image search is generally considered better than image search at Google and Yahoo! a rare example of Live Search outshining its predecessors. Even as Live Search struggles to look and act like a grown-up search engine, big daddy Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to try to significantly increase its market share.
legal notice
Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article. Web-articles is a free articles resource.
Suggestion: If you need fresh, daily updated content for your website, feel free to use our service. Click here for more information.
Useful tools and features
If you like this article (tutorial), please link to it from your web page using the information above.
related articles
One of the most successful approaches to getting your Web site to rank well in the organic search results is to create a blog. A blog allows you to continually provide fresh content on your Web site while building a community of readers who look to your site as an authority. Your blog does not necessarily need to be educational in nature. You may also want to entertain and reward your readers for being part of your community. Making your blog successful requires a serious time commitment and...
2. How to Monetize Web Site Traffic
Monetize Web Site Traffic You may not have an e-commerce Web site that has an obvious monetization method. Instead, you may have a great Web site with unique, well-written content that generates a lot of traffic, and you may wonder how you can effectively monetize your traffic. The Internet opens up the door to making lots of money without having to actually sell anything. In fact, with revolutionary money-making models such as affiliate marketing, contextual advertising, and ad widgets, many Web sit...
3. Quality score optimization or QSO
Quality Score Optimization Quality score optimization, or QSO, is a set of strategies for improving quality score. Quality score is a principal ranking factor that search engines use to determine your relative ranking and pricing for a particular keyword listing. In todays PPC advertising environment, the highest bidder does not always win. Instead, Google and other leading search engines rank Web sites based on numerous quality factors, and use your designated maximum cost per click as only one of many...
4. How to create Create Pay per Click Campaigns
Create Pay-per-Click Campaigns With search-engine optimization (SEO), your goal is to rank for free within the organic search results for target keywords related to your Web site. In contrast, with pay-per-click (PPC) your goal is to pay for placement by competing with other advertisers for ranking within the sponsored results section of search results. There is no charge when someone clicks your organic listing, but you are charged every time someone clicks your PPC listing. PPC listings are t...
Social Media Optimization Social media optimization, or SMO, is a form of online marketing that focuses on participating on various social media Web sites to generate traffic, buzz, and links back to your Web site. Social media Web sites include social news Web sites such as Digg, Sphinn, and StumbleUpon; video sharing Web sites such as YouTube and Revver; and social network Web sites, including MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Various recognized SEO and SMO pundits have referred to SMO as the new SEO...
6. Building quality links back to your Web site might be considered the Holy Grail
Build Links If creating large amounts of original, well-written content is considered King for search-engine-optimization purposes, building quality links back to your Web site might be considered the Holy Grail. You must have more than just quality content, because Google and other major searchengine algorithms evaluate the number and quality of Web sites that link to your Web pages as a primary and fundamental component of ranking your Web site over another. Search engines conclude that Web sit...
7. Track Google Analytics links peporting and keywords
Track External Links When constructing your Web site, you are likely to have links that are both internal and external. Internal links refer to the links that send the visitor to other pages within your site, and external links refer to the links that send a visitor to a Web site other than your own. Google Analytics can show you how your visitors navigate your internal links, but what if they leave your site by clicking an external link? By tweaking the way you construct your external links, Google An...
8. Organic ranking factors and paid listings
Organic Ranking Factors You already know that search engines use complicated secret formulas, called ranking algorithms, to determine the order of their results. You even know that some of the most Eternally Important factors are your web page text and your HTML title tags. Now we're going to wrap what you already know into an organic optimization cheat sheet that you can peek at next time someone asks you, What do search engines care about, anyway? But first, a disclaimer: There are radically differi...
9. The Challenge of SEO Team Building
You're busy, and SEO isn't your only job, so we're pretty sure you won't be thrilled to hear this: Your SEO campaign will incorporate a wide variety of tasks: writing and editing, web page design, programming, ad copy creation, research, web analytics, and interpersonal communication for link building. If you're doing this all yourself, bravo! You're just the sort of multitasking do-it-yourselfer who thrives in SEO. If your entire company can't ride to lunch on the same motorcycle, we're putting you in charge o...