Wikia Search Alpha Launch (Seo ranking)
Search is so consolidated that it is uncomfortable being an SEO. If Google decides to profile you or kill your sites there is not much you can do, especially because Yahoo! and Microsoft are losing marketshare month after month. Why are Yahoo! and Microsoft losing marketshare? Their bad marketing coupled with Google’s good marketing:
The toolbar has NEVER given anyone any real information. BUT, it has given the world a perception that whatever Google ranks that must be right. It has also helped to give Google millions of devout followers and millions more who are willing to give access to a lot of private data just to see a little green go a little farther to the right. BRILLIANT. So brilliant in fact I have never understood why MSN and Yahoo haven’t done their own white paper and give away a little blue bar to “prove” it works. BUT, that is why Yahoo and MSN seem to be losing market share. Not because their results aren’t as good. It is because they aren’t as good at marketing. I don’t begrudge Google for that. I admire them.
To appreciate how bad Yahoo’s marketing is, consider the following:
- Overture Keyword Selector - their public facing keyword tool is unreliable and does not even promote their own brand or their own network on it.
- Want to sign in to Yahoo search marketing? Go to sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com. Yup…2/3 of the companies revenues come through a subdomain of a subdomain.
- Yahoo powers millions of domain landing pageviews every day, and are afraid to put their brand on it, all while Google puts their brand (and typically search box) on everything they touch.
Anyhow, this is Christmas and this is supposed to be a happy post. And I am happy, because Wikia Search just launched in Alpha, and plans to publicly launch on January 7th.
Given that the difference between Google and Yahoo is largely one of marketing, and given that Google has been doing more manual editing of the search results, that lends credibility to Wikia’s human search model.
What happens when Wikipedia has a “search powered by you” box promoting an engine other than Google on every page of Wikipedia? Does Wikipedia keep ranking #1 for everything? Does this create another viable search channel for marketers? Does this competition make Google less arrogent and harsh in their webmaster relations department?
Here is Wikias’ whitelist, and here is a blog tracking Wikia’s progress. And here are some of Google’s human review documents that were leaked a couple years ago.
Google`s Environmental Endeavors
If you re one of the few that still doesn t believe in global warming then this article isn t for you. Because even those who refuse to do anything about it can still accept the barrage of facts and scientific data that support climate change. Unfortunately this isn t the time or place to get into such things but I can tell you about the many initiatives sponsored by Google to help combat this worsening issue….
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Open Q&A Thread for Internet Marketing Questions
Let me know if you have any questions about SEO or internet marketing stuff. I will try to reply to your comment right below it in less than a day, often within minutes, for as long as this thread is open.
Please ask do not ask for in depth site reviews or questions that would be applicable to just one website.
Update: thread closed… I have to start working on a big project. Thanks for the questions everyone.
Forced Verticals: You Are Not Spam if You Are the Only Option Available
Google opts to not show AdWords ads above the search results unless they deem them exceptionally relevant to the query, with the ads proving that relevancy with a high CTR. With Google’s other verticals, they have a database of options which is
- much shallower
- spammier
- less efficient
- with fewer signs of relevancy and trust
Markets start out ugly then you try to make them more efficient as they develop. Google tries to make some of the verticals become relevant by pricing them at free and forcing exposure upon them, front and center at the top of the search results - hoping competitive market forces and market feedback will drive the new verticals toward relevancy, and a market leading position they can charge for. You rarely see Google charge for basic level usage of something if they are the #2 or #3 player in the market. First they want to buy the market leading position by giving it away, then start charging for it.
In some cases they are willing to hold these new verticals to a much lower standard than their paid ads in an attempt to win marketshare. Google tracks CTR on Google accounts and knows most of the people searching for SEO Book click on SeoBook.com, but they still show their product search ads for that query:
Defending Your Website Against Unjust Ranking Penalties
In the past many Google penalties were blatantly obvious. You either got traffic or you did not. But as time has passed penalties are getting blurrier, meaning your site can be penalized and still get traffic from Google. Some traffic reductions are due to competitive market forces, some are due to algorithm changes, some are due to automated filters, and some are due to penalties. If you are new to the market (and in some cases, even if you are experienced) it is hard to know which problems, if any, are holding back your ranking potential.
A friend just told me about how his Google traffic went way up after he spoke with a Google engineer, but he didn’t want to talk about it publicly. I wonder how many other people are just like him, but don’t speak about it or don’t know they are penalized? And then I think back to the ban of the official AdSense blog, Brian Clark’s PageRank hit, and Sugar Rae’s ranking woes, and have come to the conclusion that spam fighting has become more of a shoot first and ask questions later game. They do not make a lot of mistakes, but when your site is just a number, it hurts pretty bad.
From a marketer perspective this shoot first shift is an important one which requires a few things of online publishers hoping to keep their businesses profitable:
- Track your traffic using analytics tools, such that you know if/when something goes wrong, can prove it with hard stats, and can research it more specifically.
- Publish at least 2 or 3 sites in different markets to give yourself additional data points on whether the issue is site specific or not.
- Use public relations and viral link marketing where you once used link buys. If you are still renting links try to make them covert, and offset them with many natural links.
- If possible package your offering as a service, so that you can justify charging recurring, and/or create an affiliate program. These make your income less reliant on search engines.
- If nobody cares that the site is missing there is no harm nor foul. Build up enough social significance that you can cause enough noise if/when something goes wrong such that Google gets enough blowback to fix the issue quickly.
Google Not Best for All Searches
When you re looking for information do you go to an encyclopedia or a specialized book If you answered Neither I check the Internet don t click away. The question has more relevance for the major search engines particularly Google than you might think….
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