Five Things You Must Know About the New Google Search

Mike MoranSince 2010, Google has practically remade search 1. It indexes content faster than ever 2. It shows results to searchers as they type 3. It ranks results based on social activity 4. It ranks results based on human ratings 5. It ranks results based on who your friends are4 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranGoogle Caffeine can keep up with the social Web  Google’s index once took two weeks to update  Now it can take minutes  Why is that important? Collect content faster 1 and faster.5 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranGoogle Instant’s impact is somewhat overblown  Only some searches use Instant  Searches that don’t use Instant:  Toolbars  Chrome browser address bar  Some searchers turn off Instant10 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranThe search ranking algorithm decides who’s first  Social does not affect paid search results  It helps decide the #1 organic result  Some will do anything 89% of clicks on page 112 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranSome people reverse engineer the algorithm  Google wants the keywords on the page  Google wants the keywords in the title  Google wants links to the site What Google really wants is high quality search results for the searchers14 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranSo what’s Google Panda?  A new release of the Google search ranking algorithm  It was born almost a year ago  But it just keeps growing in importance  Every few months, it changes18 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranPanda adds a new factor to the ranking algorithm  Human beings rate a small subset of search results:  Nice design?  Speedy response?  Quality content?  Would you return?  Sites that people like get bumped higher in ranking  The sites they don’t like are shoved down19 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranMachine learning scales the human ratings  Even Google can’t afford human ratings for every page for every search  So, it looks for patterns—common features  If your site looks like the low-rated sites, your site gets ranked lower20 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranWhat does it mean to “look like” low quality?  Machine learning detects patterns in what pages look like based on “features”  What could the features be?  The length of the title tag  The ratio of words to pictures  The commonality of runs of words21 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranWhat is the practical effect of Panda?  Sites that ranked highly with the old algorithm have been affected  If your site was great for search engines, but not for actual people, time to up your game  Who seemed to get hit?  “Content farms” and screen-scrapers  Older content  Sites loaded with ads  Vertical search sites—but not Google sites!22 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranIt’s not just about spamming  Most of you don’t practice real You black hat SEO  But you don’t win by examining the terms of service like a legal document  You see what works for all three parties Google Searchers23 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranThat wasn’t just bad luck  Tactics that help You everyone get rewarded  Tactics that help only you don’t  Maybe you should stick to what will work long-term Google Searchers24 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranShould you only be looking at rankings?  Many sites that lamented their loss of traffic actually didn’t lose any sales  Google might be improving its ability to send qualified leads to your site25 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranIs Panda over? The world has now stabilized?  Google will continue to roll out algorithm changes based on:  Panda feature changes and human rating changes  Google +1 button ratings  Other content quality assessments, including social media activity  If Panda is working (and Google seems to be committed to it), expect Microsoft and other engines to follow26 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranDon’t be a good scout. Be good at business.  You’re not trying out for You sainthood  Do it because it works  It’s less risky, easier to do, and has fewer ups and downs  Focus on a quality searcher experience, and success Google Searchers will follow27 © 2011 Mike Moran

Mike MoranIf results are personalized, where do you rank?  Search marketers always want to know where they rank  But the answer is, “Only Google knows”  Google is starting to pass the rank on29 © 2011 Mike Moran

Five Things You Must Know About the New Google Search

by Mike Moran on Feb 12, 2012

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Five Things You Must Know About the New Google Search — Presentation Transcript