Business website owners and Business Bloggers beware! I see the claims almost everyday and, for the record, the latest Search Engine Advantage is NOT necessarily site technology or optimization tactics so much as it is you!

Google is at the top of the technology mountain; however, they need 1) search traffic and 2) your practical knowledge in order to monetize their technology. In this sense "practical knowledge" refers to online content - the topics, keywords, and key phrases that make up your websites and blogs. Google deploys spiders [bots] to crawl the web and consume all content for their indexes. Once they have it, they prepare it for their search traffic by ranking it!

Everybody searches, so the success of Google’s [Yahoo’s, MSN’s, etc.] business depends on their ability to meet that search activity with the best user experience possible. They employ an army of engineers & PHDs whose primary intention is to perfect an ability to accurately identify, consume and rank content… NOT SITE TECHNOLOGY. The Google algorithm is known to have over 200 individually weighted criteria, cementing their ability to decide what truly is and what is not a relevant high ranking search result. Says Google, "We’re constantly experimenting with our algorithm, tuning and tweaking on a weekly basis to come up with more relevant and useful results for our users."  In effect [and this is very important], Google truly wants to level the playing field for all content so that they can successfully return the best, most relevant search results possible to their users.

Yes, all the hearsay is true - a blog can offer you certain advantages in the eyes of the search engines and we provide a leading- edge solution[coming soon: we’ll be writing about the important features your blog should have.] And yes, your Blog must be designed well and its’ feature set must evolve because the web & search engines always do; however, those 200 individually weighted criteria mentioned above are used to evaluate and to compare your site or blog, its pages and especially its content! Sure links are important: some are more important than others, some are in your control, but your content is ultimately the key. 

Make no mistake, it’s your "practical knowledge" that search engines need in order to earn the loyalty of consumer search traffic! Google openly discloses site standards in order to assist in making websites and blogs more search engine friendly. Why? They want it to be easy for everyone to bring practical knowledge to the web so they can ‘…organize the world’s information.’ They don’t say they want to organize the most technical, the most intellectual or the most eloquent presentation… they say they want "to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful."  Why? So they can successfully connect ALL searching consumers with the fresh, relevant, unbiased & useful answers they want.

Content is your practical knowledge; your content transferred to the web is YOU transferred to the web. Good evolving blog technology is very important, but the largest advantage is your practical knowledge of a subject [i.e. Santa Barbara Pocket Listings Blog] and the consistent, on topic transfer of that knowledge to the web. Because of Google’s reliable search driven business model, the advantage is you! And it is YOU by design!

In this day and age the cost to create content is negligible. The means to distribute your content to the people who want and who need it is without constraint! Great Business blog solutions make it simple! So, get in there and blog: blog enthusiastically about what you know, what you hear, what you see and what have to offer and you will generate visibility, awareness and new business 

What is a Google Alert you ask?  It’s a very powerful tool that can help you become efficient in your business on many fronts!  A Google Alert is a simple mechanism that allows you to be alerted by email when blog/news articles, videos and more hit the web about subjects you are interested in.  Here are a few pratical examples to give you a visual:

• Imagine you wanted to know if someone (whether a blog or news website) was talking about you or your company out there on the web - you can set up an alert to notify you "as it happens" by email.
• Imagine you wanted to join regular blog and news conversations about topics relevant to your business - you can set up an alert to let you know when those conversations are happening.
• Imagine you wanted to know what your competitors were up to - set an alert to be notified of any news about them!

Get the picture?  Alerts are incredibly powerful information efficiency tools.  The following section will tell you how to set up and use your own Google Alerts.  It’s free, try it out!

• You do not need a Google account to set up alerts, however it is to your benefit to have one so that you can manage those alerts.  You can sign up for an account here.  If you already have an account you can also sign-in there.
• By default, Google alerts (when you sign in through your Google account) will default to your GMail account.  You can have them sent to your own email addresses, all you need to do is associate that address in your Google Account:  Click this link only after you have already signed into Google to associate your email.

Once you have successfully signed up for alerts, you can then try out a few things.  Alerts works the same way as a Google query does and give you the choice of what source you wish to receive alerts from.  You can get information from: Google News (only news articles from the wire), Google Blogs (solely blog articles and conversations), the web (everything - links to websites), Comprehensive (all three - news, blogs and web), videos, and groups (Google chat forums).  To set up a query, use the same logic you would when searching for information in Google.  For instance, let’s say I wanted to be alerted when my name came up in a blog conversation.  I would:

1. Set the search terms to "Kristen Veraldi" (quotes are important on multiple term phrases, this means only look for Kristen and Veraldi together - if i had not included them I’d get alerts on everything Kristen and everything Veraldi and everything Kristen Veraldi)
2. Select Blogs as the type
3. Set the frequency
4. Enter the email I’d like alerts delivered to (make sure it’s registered in your Google account!)

 That’s it!  Google alerts would then keep me informed by email if anyone was talking about me out there in any blog conversations!  Here’s another example, let’s say you wanted to keep a close eye on your local real estate marketplace for blogging ideas.  Perhaps you’d set the following (using your own local of course):

Search Terms: "real estate" Vail OR "Beaver Creek" CO 
Type: Blogs and News

Put the power of Google Alerts to work for you today!

As a business person looking for new customers, have you considered your own web behavior? What makes your prospective customer any different than you? Folks, your clients are searching [and subscribing] for answers & information just like you do.

In this day and age, we search [and we subscribe] because we can. It’s easy, pretty reliable and [save the ads] it’s free! Because of Google, for instance, we can do a bunch of research really quick. To a degree, we interview businesses and research their services prior to pursuing them & our interests. We’re all human, we want to get the most valuable service and a fair shake for our hard earned money. 

Considering people can search and they can subscribe [via RSS or ‘RSS convert to email’] to virtually all the information they’ll ever need in order to research product & service decisions, we must accept the playing field we’re forced to market in. With the consumer [like you!] in control, including an almost immediate ability to compare product & service information, what are you doing to show them you offer value? As a consumer, what would you expect… of yourself?

Times have most definitely changed; regardless of old school relationships or methods, if you’re not transparently sharing your knowledge- base of information, including what is timely and new, you’re already losing the long term competitive battle to win their attention and trust.

In our somewhat biased view, all professionals will have to publish or Blog to the web in order to be available direct [via RSS or ‘RSS convert to email’], to be visible, discoverable and, ultimately, to be worthy of trust. And this isn’t an exercise in Search Engine Optimization because simply being there isn’t necessarily enough. This is about performing, just like you would want others too when you are the consumer. It’s about making a commitment to be transparent, to share knowledge and to demonstrate you are a value added product and/ or service provider. Life is a two way street….. have you considered you own requirements? Have you considered your own web behavior? 

The Long Tail theory was coined by Chris Anderson in his Oct 2004 Wired Magazine article describing certain business & economic models.  Anderson, Editor Wired Magazine, later authored his best selling book on the theory.

As it applies to blogging & search engine marketing [or SEM], the idea with the Long Tail is to be visible & discoverable for as many variations of one’s core subject focus as possible. The proven theory being that, while a business may generate less search discovery per variation [i.e. Architect specializing in schools and clubhouses in New York City] than it will for the most obvious OR highly targeted search phrases [i.e. New York City Architect], the collective impact can be much greater for those variations.

Not to suggest a business should disregard targeting the obvious search or Short Tail phrase [i.e. Connecticut Architect] with it’s web presence. On the contrary, the point is based more on a cost- effective approach to being visible & discoverable in the search engines. From an economic standpoint, pursuing rank for Short Tail search topic visibility may simply be cost- prohibitive. What’s more, people search much more specifically these days and we believe the cost- effective means to capture them is consistent on- topic Blogging.

To demonstrate, I’ll use information drawn from a Realtor client who is committed to blogging. The firm focuses on being indexed for everything going on in a community as it relates to Real Estate. For this example, I examined one month’s data [anonymous/ rounded/ 6 search engines tracked] to demonstrate the kind of Long Tail Home Buyer & Seller search discovery they are generating with an inexpensive commitment to Blog.

A. Total Short Tail search discovery equaled 190/ 1,015= 19%
 1. Short Tail being the town’s name plus the words property, real estate, home or homes
B. Total Long Tail search discovery equaled 825/1,015= 81%
 1. Long Tail being as many variations relating to obvious town searches as is possible
    a.) different areas of the town or communities were equal to 130 total search discovery variations
    b.) condominium complexes equal to 299 total search discovery variations
   c.) developments equal to 89 total search discovery variations
    d.) clubs equal to 101 total search discovery variations
   e.) restaurants and local business equal to 27 total search discovery variations
   f.) listings or specific Street equal to 32 total search discovery variations
   g.) developer equal to 56 total search discovery variations
   h.) random/ miscellaneous equal to 91 total search discovery variations

This anonymous data focuses on actual search discovery, but it doesn’t represent all site traffic including repeat visitors, direct subscribers or anyone else who comes to the site directly. In this case, Long Tail success is proven based upon variations amounting to 81% of the overall search traffic. We’d argue, they’re not only cost- effective marketers but they’re also capturing the more qualified eyeballs 

There’s a string over at Real Town on the home page in RealTown’s Real Estate Community titled RE: reciprocal links with other agents …. banned i about whether or not Real Estate Agents should be linking to each other.

Some folks there have advocated it’s fine to do it, but if you watch Part II of the two interviews here [at approx. the midway point] with Google’s own Matt Cutts, Chief Page Rank Engineer, he suggests they don’t like, for instance, for a Realtor in Maine to link to Realtors in CA. He suggests, rewarding this kind of linking doesn’t lend itself to a good Google search experience….

We don’t ever claim to know exactly what Google can, cannot or will do because that would be irresponsible, but when the message comes direct from the source, we take notice. If there’s any chance at all that something like this can get you in trouble… why play Roulette? Just look at the Google Webmaster Guidelines where it says, "Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?"

Still skeptical? Read this gentleman’s story, "My website was recently penalized in Google for what I believe to be excessive cross linking…"

It’s good to keep in mind that Google’s techniques for ranking content are ever- changing. It’s only logical they must constantly tweak & tinker because they have a significant business at stake and it depends on giving all searchers the best search experience they can. In summary, use your Blog and your website to give the Search Engines consistently good on- topic information with relevant links that would help your audience and you should fare well 

It’s well known that search engines favor consistent, on topic content and that blogs make publishing to the web easy, but [regardless of professional knowledge] if you’re like most of us producing the next great post is, at times, a challenge. Here are some ideas for keeping your Blog current:

• First off, use what you’re routinely sharing in your Blog. You field questions by phone & email almost everyday and you respond with local expertise, opinions, facts & information. As a priority, you should be blogging those same snippets of information every chance you can. This way, and rather than with just one person, you may serve your business with hundreds of people who are searching for the same answers
• Second, interview other [maybe non-competitive] professionals. Why not ask other professionals for their opinions on current professional issues and events? It makes for great content and you’re not limited to being the sole producer of great ideas. What’s more, they may appreciate the exposure making future reciprocation likely
• Third, subscribe to multiple sources of relevant content as a means for new ideas. You have access to trade oriented information and, with a little research, you can identify lots more useful news & information in your area of professional expertise; however you may ask, "who has the time to review all these sites one by one when they’re ready to blog?" The good news is you don’t have to worry if you grasp RSS & subscription to useful feeds. By setting up a free MyYahoo, Google Reader, MyMSN, Bloglines, Newsgator or one of the many online / desktop Feed Reader services you can have the latest content from as many sources as you like. The information will gather in one orderly place for your review… when you’re ready to blog
• Fourth, use alerts. Google Alerts is a fantastic way to set up continuous or persistent searches on virtually any specific subject. By setting up relevant keyword & key phrase queries [IE: contemporary los angeles architecture, modern art in manhattan, new development los gatos, st petersburg AND property OR homes OR real estate, etc., etc.] you’ll have all the specific coverage on subjects of your choosing at your disposal… when you’re ready to blog
• Fifth, supplement with Blog Writing Services: If you’re simply too busy, we offer experienced ghost blog writing services so that you’re always fighting the competitive search engine marketing visibility & discover-ability battle.

Portfolio.com has written a good article and created an interactive feature to help break down Google.

Have fun with it

As the cost of Pay Per Click rises often to well over $1 per click in local markets, business people must inevitably turn their attention toward organic search engine indexing. In fact why wouldn’t they when ComScore analysis shows Google’s paid click percentage for when folks are searching to be 13%, Yahoo’s 11% and MSN’s 8%?

At 87 to 92 organic clicks per 100 consumer searches, a business person can easily see where they may want to place some focus. As local organic search awareness is raised, the competition for relevant organic search engine index placement will heat up more and more. In order to establish rankings, it’s important to be proactive in developing a strategy NOW and a locally focused Blog is the cost-effective answer!

It’s certainly easy to blog consistently on local business knowledge and the opportunity to establish search engine relevance, rather than trying and catch up later, is still very available and ‘for the taking.’ For our clients, who have the lowest monthly business-class blogging cost, there is an unlimited ability to blog, to cover local professional goings- on, to transfer knowledge, to establish keyword & key phrase search engine indexing and to generate broad discoverability.

What’s more, blogging can generate valuable long tail search engine topic, key word & key phrase indexing naturally. Long tail are terms affiliated with one’s primary search target terms, that may generate less individual discovery than the primary but more impact collectively. When blogging is consistent and on- topic, search engines will favor it offering indexing longevity where pay per click won’t. Addititionally, by being a transparent blogger who shares good local information, trust can be created with target markets where advertising [particularly PPC] never will.

In all and if marketing costs are a concern, why compete for only 10- 20% of the search traffic [Google Search Clicks: PPC 13% / Organic 87%] and pay hundreds to thousands when blogging can be a more valuable and cost- effective answer to search engine marketing?

In our view 1) consistent on- topic content, 2) sound blog technology developed to generate more search engine index penetration and the 3) development of relevant links should all be considered important to the development of a visible presence in the search engines; however, good content should be priority number one! In fact good content, which is often referred to as link- bait, will often attract (no. 3) linking naturally.

Beware: linking is dangerous sport these days, requiring knowledge of what is & what is not a quality link… and a healthy recognition for the risk of creating a bad link. Linking requires time, effort and, if solely pursued for the purpose of SEO, it should be approached with an understanding of a Search Engines interest in ranking content for its’ actual consumer value. In fact, Search Engines don’t like cheating or gaming- see this Matt Cutts interview discussing Google’s recognition of common linking tactics they don’t necesarily see as useful to consumers.

Additionally, this piece in Search Engine Watch on the value of links is very informative: What’s a link worth? "The answer often seems riddled with secrets that aren’t secret and lies that are. Don’t listen to the false promises of secrets. Don’t get taken in by the lies. "
 

At Kinetic Knowledge we offer a low cost, convenient, image- based Video Tour content creation service. In fact, we’ve recently submitted Real Estate Listing Tours to YouTube for folks in places like Tampa FL, Ann Arbor MI, Vail CO and Tucson AZ. This particular tour was uploaded recently and it’s seeing high rank for the most competitive searches it’s owner might target, including

• avon real estate No. 2 ,
• avon co real estate No. 1,
• vail real estate No. 1,
• vail co real estate No. 1,
• vail valley real estate No. 1,
• vail valley co real estate No. 1,
• vail realtor No. 1,
• vail co realtor No. 1,
• vail valley home No. 1,
• vail home No. 3,  
• vail co home No. 1 and who knows what else. What’s more, it’s already been downloaded well over 600 times for its’ Realtor.

The Google index houses massive content for virtually any search topic, whereas YouTube [which like Google sees a great deal of search traffic] hasn’t seen the competitive ‘content indexing push’ for specific search results. Seeing as how Google recently announced the YouTube video library will be a major part of their own search index, it’s an opportune time to consider creating Video Tours on products & services [i.e. Product How too Tours, Home Design Tours, Architectural Tours.]

Tours can be a terrific approach to marketing a product or a service and they can be used in Blogs, Websites, Product Aggregator sites and, particularly, YouTube [which will now push content to Google & Google Video.] For example, Real Estate Agents and Brokerage Firms, who have a myriad of dynamic content creation options at their disposal, can actually develop Listings’ Video Tour content simply with basic still images. These Product & Service Tours can then be optimized for search with tags and then posted to YouTube… where lead opportunities abound.

Pew Internet & American Life Project says that 57% of Internet users have watched videos online and most of them share what they find with others. They say 74% of those who enjoy high-speed connections download video online and that 19% do it daily. Recent Hitwise data showed visits to YouTube had increased 70% when comparing Jan ‘07 to May ‘07. In fact, Hitwise shows YouTube market share to be 50% greater than all 64 other ‘video aggregator’sites combined.

Let us know if we can help prepare your Products & services Image- based Video Tours including upload & optimization in YouTube for searching consumers today… for an incredibly reasonable price.