Keep in mind, the search engines have an almost desperate interest in satisfying all consumer search: the fear being we consumers will stop coming back to search if we don’t like the organic [=non advertising] search results. If we stopped visiting it would destroy their pay per click advertising revenue business, which counts on approximately 1/ 10 visit ad based clicks.

Also rememember, fundamentally to achieve better SEO a site needs to be marked up to 1) cooperate with search engine spidering, to 2) produce consistent on topic content and to 3) generate a [algorithm-] measurable reaction [i.e. relevant back links, bookmarks, facebook likes, retweets, plus 1s, direct subscriptions and much more].

The Answer To: Does A Keyword Domain Translate To Better Keyword SEO?

It’s certainly possible to succeeed without a keyword based domain and our advice is *always* to think more about what is sustainable in the long run. According to Matt Cutts a keyword based domain can help and he also admits the Google algorithm places some weight [e.g. algorithm believed to use 200 + ranking signals] on your domain name when ranking competitive positioning. Cutts also makes a couple comments worth mentioning:

1. Cutts emphasizes that a domain that is brand- able, [i.e. Yahoo] rather than keyword based, may be a better strategy. What he means is great brand, which has lots of measurable online reaction, seperates itself from ‘the keyword domain driven competitive pack’. 

2. Cutts also suggests Google may lessen any weight the signal has in the near future, meaning a keyword based domain may help some now, BUT there are no guarantees in the future. The plan is to bring the sites and pages to the top based upon the merits of  activity [i.e. relevant back links, bookmarks, facebook likes, retweets, plus 1s, direct subscriptions and much more].

Our advice: if you have a good keword based domain go ahead and use it, but worry more about the long term fundamentals of building a well marked up brand/ site that consistently shares good information/ content and that sees a good reaction to that content.

Assuming it’s crawled, there are so many signals used to compare your site’s page to another for it’s key words and phrases. These are signals that are actually changing every day. While site code and content optimization count as competitive signals, the merit of the content itself [i.e. based upon a series of measurable reactions from other people like back links, bookmarks, facebook likes, retweets, subscribes, etc., etc.] is highly weighted.

Better yet, let’s allow Matt Cutts to explain

It’s a question we’re asked often and also a common assumption spread by the uninformed. Today’s post titled, ‘Google Search and Search Engine Spam’ should dispel any confusion. In it, Matt Cutts is quoted as follows,

“One misconception that we’ve seen in the last few weeks is the idea that Google doesn’t take as strong action on spammy content in our index if those sites are serving Google ads. To be crystal clear:

• Google absolutely takes action on sites that violate our quality guidelines regardless of whether they have ads powered by Google;
• Displaying Google ads does not help a site’s rankings in Google; and
• Buying Google ads does not increase a site’s rankings in Google’s search results.

These principles have always applied, but it’s important to affirm they still hold true.”

No matter what you’ve heard about the latest silver bullet to the top of Google’s search index, be very skeptical. Consider Google and it’s army of engineers have an interest in making sure their organic search results are timely & relevant. That interest being the satisfaction of those that search, to protect the quality of the results. Good search results drive more searching, more clicks and more revenue. For the business trying to be relevant and visible in the organic search indexes it’s a good thing. It means that if you create good timely content you have as good a chance as any business to be there.

And sure it’s a leap of faith to spend your valuable time publishing content, but {then again} isn’t all advertising?

It’s a question many ask and for the most part we’ve always answered with another question, “what is the purpose or goal of your site?” If the answer is to drive more leads, subscribers or to sell more products and services, BUT NOT to sell advertising…. than we have the answer to the question.

Often people under value their own brand, not to mention the value of being a current & knowledgeable authority on a subject. And if we can be the current & knowledgeable authority that future buyers are looking for, then why do anything but center visitor attention on our brand? Better yet, why not convert them to a direct subscriber or even a buyer?

DailyBlogTips.com Post Titled ‘ Why I Will Never Use Adsense on a Blog Again’

Ironically DailyBlogTips.com post actually has competitive Google Adsense Ads’ directly beneath the title, but we felt ‘ Why I Will Never Use Adsense on a Blog Again’  did a nice job of summing up why the practice can be counter productive. And by the way, no reason to blame the author about the Adsense Ads. He’s a guest author and unlikely to be aware of DailyBlogTips.com’s Ad’ management. See the image here, which if you think about it ONLY PROVES THE GUEST AUTHOR’S THEORY - ADSENSE CAN BE VERY COUNTER PRODUCTIVE to the purpose of publishing a blog!

In any event, less than 1 click per 100 visitors on average means only ’critical mass’ will generate enough click through activity to make meaningful money. And while the author didn’t quite get into how competitive it is for traffic these days, nor that to make money with Adsense you’ll need significant traffic, he did make great points about a site’s purpose including:

1. Your Purpose Should Be To Get Readers – We’d add: focus less on quantity, more on quality!
2. Each [Adsense] Click Represents A Lost Reader
3. It [Adsense] Dilutes Your Brand equity
4. Passes Equity To The Advertiser That Gets A Visitors Click
5. You Do Not Have Complete Control Over What Ads Surface
6. You Compromise Your Brand With The Wrong Ads
7. The Money is In The Mailing List
8. Subscribers Eventually Buy!
9. If You Must Have Ads, Look Into Complimentary Affiliates

Summary

What is the mission of your blogsite?  Is it to drive traffic? Subscribers? Brand? Product & Service Sales? Do you want to grow your business…. or someone elses?

Click here to read the Daily Blog Tips post and decide for yourself what is important to you and your blog mission.

Important Takeaways:

• When one searches they do not search the whole web, only what pages Google has in it’s index
• Google indexes what pages it can find, but not the whole web
• As a site owner, assuming you have used the search terms on a page, you compete for a search results position against every other page Google has indexed with those same terms [ = key words or phrases]
• When comparing your page and the others, Google’s algorithm uses 200 questions or signals
• One obvious question relates to your use of the search terms on a page, like are they in your title, your URL and/or how are they used in the content of the page
• Another question looks for search term synonyms on your page – be careful NOT to over stuff the actual search terms as the algorithm is known to see this as bad practice or spammy
• Page Rank has emphasis and it is focused on the back links your page has accumulated, but note that it’s not necessarily just volume… it’s also very much a determination of the quality of those links
• Organic results or how Google ranks pages is NEVER paid for!

Thoughts on Search Engine Optimization:

• It can take time, but consistent activity and topic focus is proven
• How long you have been there for search terms can help
• Broaden search term target focus – leverage the long tail
• Your competition has a great deal to do with where you get and how fast you get there
• Pursue back links where you can, but from good sites preferably with good page rank and in anchor text
• Your site design & technology must not only be search engine friendly, but it must be updated & advanced in order to remain search engine friendly – static sites will not sustain a competitive edge!

Related Posts:

• Confused By Search Engine Optimization? Try This ‘Laypersons Guide To Understanding SEO’
• What does the Google Crawl mean to your business and how will your Business Blog help?
• So, how important is our Page Rank?
• Google’s Matt Cutts On Organic Versus Reciprocal Links
• Beware of What Is Sold As SEO!

Google Webmasters Excerpt: “Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second.”

What does it mean to us?

[For indexing] that always depends on our target market and the competitive set  looking to reach it, but Allan Dalton wisely suggests we triangulate on the pressing issues relevant to our audience. Maybe, being a current source is even more valuable to our visibility now… with Caffeine?

The subtle hint is, if humans wouldn’t appreciate the link assume Google’s algorithm might not either.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnquaBa6DSk]

And remember, core organic SEO [without gaming] is based upon:

1) focused, well formed & consistent content,

2) a measurable reaction from humans to that content [back links, SERP activity, bookmarks, subscriptions, feed connections to other sites, time on page, etc., etc.] and also

3) well configured / easily spider crawled sites.

Still confused, try This ‘Laypersons Guide To Understanding SEO’ for some more depth

On Friday Google announced they were going to include a new signal in their search ranking algorithm – “site speed”. For the layperson, site speed is often refered to it as “load time” and it is a part of what affects a WordPress blog’s or, for that matter, any site’s competitive SEO. your site speed reflects how quickly a page responds to visitor requests from a web browser. Not to worry too much, Matt Cutts of Google discloses that “site speed” is only one of 200 signals used to compare you to the competition for organic search results and it’s not nearly as important as the relevance of your pages -see the below video. Google also adds, less than 1% of all search queries are even affected by the speed of sites… so again worry some, but not too much. 
 
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muSIzHurn4U]
 
While they’re saying site speed is a new signal, there are some general things you should know. First off, there are a scary number of random things that can affect how your WordPress blog loads in any one person’s browser, including their own computer settings. Second, pages have probably always had to load favorably in order to justify more spider crawling, more key phrase indexing and better SEO. Spiders don’t always crawl deep into your pages! And finally, it’s why a service like ours puts so much effort into things like WordPress updates, plugin evaluation, server setup and caching as a part of our standard monthly service. Here is a quick list of things that may affect a blogs’ “site speed” depending on your site’s setup and also on who’s visiting:
 
1. The version of the visitors’ browser – is it current or so old and obsolete that it’s having an effect on the speed they see?
2. Does site have too many plugins or widgets added – we certainly do our best to monitor this for clients, but folks want lots of plugins & widgets and a bad one or bad combination can have an effect.
3. Are there specific modifications to a site’s design or to a feature that all of a sudden slows site speed down?
4. Is the site making reference to too many outside resources, like for instance, various 3rd party or Social Media tools?
5. Is a theme or design choice creating too much drag – does it count on too many style sheets or is there a poor use of graphics?
6. Something that can be in your favor, but also deceiving in the long run is “how far along is the competition?” – are they even competing yet?
7. And then there’s security software. If tuned too agressively on a visitor’s PC, it can also undermine visitor experience.

Ultimately, we’re constantly looking for ways to balance features and speeding things up to provide a better visitor experience for all clients. No matter how you manage a WordPress blog nothing ever stands still: WordPress software, open source feature plugins, widgets, search algorithm signals, security solutions and web browsers are forever being updated and that affects everyone – not just you, but the competition too. We’d be the first to admit we’ve made some mistakes managing it all over the years, but that experience is a benefit in the long run. The focus of a service like ours is to fight the never ending battle so clients are always advancing cost effectively and in ways that support a competitive advantage!

Related Posts:

• Managing Your WordPress Blog Like It’s A Business Asset?
• Confused By Search Engine Optimization? Try This ‘Laypersons Guide To Understanding SEO’
• What does the Google Crawl mean to your business and how will your Business Blog help?

It’s a dangerous promise when the dynamic nature of a networked web, search engine algorithms and random competitive activity makes search results unpredictable. If someone tells me they can improve my results, which are pretty good, I’d ask, “Really, what information do you have on recent algorithm [proprietary] adjustments and what do you know about my competitors’ activity that might affect the results?” See, search engines constantly change the way they rank content AND activity around our competitors online presence is obviously not static [at least it won't be forever]. So, the position we hold for a key word or phrase today may very well change tomorrow.

Lately Google has hinted to a higher weight for consumer driven signals such as bookmarks, subscriptions and even the choices they make from a search results page. Logic would have Google wants to protect the quality of their search results by reducing the weight of signals like meta data & back links, considering the ease for their manipulation. But even then, there are over 200 [mostly unknown by design!] signals used to compare us and our search marketing competitors.

If Promised Search Results Were Possible, Are They Sustainable?

In theory, there are best practices for in page [site architecture], on page [content] and off page [links, subscriptions, bookmarks, search choices, etc., etc.] SEO; however, is anyone truly an expert to the degree they can promise long term search results?

Even Google’s own Search Engineers are, at times, unaware of changes that occur. “When Barry asked me about ‘position 6′ in late December, I said that I didn’t know of anything that would cause that. But about a week or so after that, my attention was brought to something that could exhibit that behavior. We’re in the process of changing the behavior; I think the change is live at some datacenters already and will be live at most data centers in the next few weeks.” Matt Cutts

Sure there are lots of facts out there, but also misunderstood or false facts and/ or those that rapidly lessen in importance. For instance PageRank, which measures and compares our links, is one heavily documented signal; however and as suggested above, PageRank is no where near as important as it once was.

Yes there are going to be new hacks, but know the war between Google and such tactics will carry on. Betting against Google’s resources may not be the best idea. If sustainability is a goal [and for the serious business person it should be], we’re best off using marketing strategies that build brands!

Good Content and Activity

We believe that content builds brands: consistently publishing useful coverage for a target marketplace builds visibility & trust. Sure good blog solutions are known to make a competitive difference with search engines, but understanding how to create good content and the activity stemming from that effort is key.

In an environment where future customers are [re]searching our products and services, it’s the coverage activity that will:

1. generate more qualified search discovery,
2. generate more voluntary RSS subscription,
3. differentiate as dedicated, knowledgeable & trustworthy and
4. establish us as unique marketplace brands.

Get instructional education and make a disciplined effort to blog what you see, hear, know and have to offer. Add comments on other relevant blogs. Register for and, at least, submit content into relevant social network environments. Notify clients & prospects of the commitment to useful market coverage and ask they subscribe!

Interested people will develop an appreciation for our effort. Some people will expose us to audiences of their own via link, others via word of mouth; some will become new clients later and others right now! An in doing so, our markets will have identified us and our Brands!

Several top search optimization educators have been sounding the horns: Google has been changing, and is preparing to launch a major overhaul of, their content ranking methods. Ultimately, search personalization will see to it that each person has different search results… for the exact same search.

Google knows where you’re located based upon an IP address [numeric identifier specific to your computer and Internet service provider] so, while it is certainly a factor, it won’t really matter whether you’re logged into a personal Google account or not. With this information, they can track prior search history and determine what your future search results should be. If you search for “java” they can make assumptions about the intent of your search and that you are looking for coffee; whereas another person’s previous search results may show they’re looking for computer code.

We’ve been beating this drum at Kinetic [ How important is Page Rank ] for a long time now, but rather than us listen to Google: Udi Manber says, “The goal is always the same: improve the user experience. This is not the main goal, it is the only goal.”

The reality is progress: what’s hidden in Manber’s point is that chasing a “quick fix”, rather than creating good content, for search engine optimization is not only their right to fight, but their objective. Because there has been so much gaming around links, the value of your site’s link structure [ PageRank ] will lessen versus newer methods of rank comparison. Google’s vast data shows them that the highest quality organic search results foster higher search loyalty. More searching at Google, as opposed to the competition, fosters more pay per click and that drives their business.

At the end of the day business people fighting for online visibility should accept that the winning formula is a commitment to consistent, on-topic content coverage. And that’s not so bad because when it comes to your business the appeal you need to receive a searcher, a subscriber or a referral will simply depend on a willingness to publish what you know, see, hear and have to offer. Simple, affordable and fair!

Sure, you’re going to have to look at your analytics, to measure traffic, bounce rates and overall activity in order to gauge what content is working, but today’s SEO is different. It’s content, being informed about how to create content and having a good technology platform to format & present content!

Give us a holler, we can help.