SEO News

Google is (still) the preferred search engine in the UK
June 10 2008

It’s unstoppable, the phenomenon that is Google. In the recent results of comScore’s “UK Share of Search” study, Google was shown to have 74.2% of the UK market, followed by eBay which only snagged 6%, and an even more dismal Yahoo! which got a little over 4%. Microsoft websites came in 4th with only 3.4%.

Other notable developments

What’s even more interesting is the fact that Facebook – a big social media site – was finally able to break in the top 10 (well, it was number 10 with a 1.8 market share, but still, that’s a pretty remarkable improvement). This trend is something worth watching. If it continues to climb up the list, then we might be seeing history unfold. It just might be the start of the takeover of social networking websites.

Reactions from the SEO community

Google continues its dominance – it doesn’t look like a Yahoo-Microsoft merger will change that, and it will certainly take ages before social media sites can make a dent on its share. Whether this dominance is good or bad depends entirely on who’s looking. There is growing concern about Google’s “monopoly;” about how it can single-handedly direct information on the internet. Would it create an unbalanced market? Would it censor? Would it be biased towards its big sponsors to the detriment of smaller websites?

The bigger problem

In the SEO business where survival is priority, there really is (sadly) not much time to overanalyze what a dominant Google can do. The more pressing problem is living up to its stricter standards, and making sure that client-websites are ready for its changing algorithms. The focus is on branding, creating content for readers (not just search engines), and developing relevant link systems. At the end of the day, it’s still Google that brings in traffic. All we can do is get good rankings. There’s no use moving a mountain – so let’s focus on climbing it.

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Yahoo + Web 2.0 = SearchMonkey
June 10 2008

We have seen some exciting times on the internet with the growth of our favorite search engines and the new facets of SEO that emerge from the depths to adapt with the ever growing demand of organic search marketing. The coming years will show us things that we never thought of and the search engines themselves are going to continue to grow in hopes of giving their loyal viewers unique ways to find the best results from the many search queries formed each day.

Yahoo! is already developing its new look for showing its results to all of us. Yahoo! has been working on an open platform to let webmasters and viewers alike help make the results more relevant to the viewer’s searches while adding functionality where none previously existed. This new open source search is called by the “coined” name: SearchMonkey

So what is SearchMonkey? SearchMonkey is an open platform to generate applications and info bars that enhance the usefulness and relevance of search results. ysearchblog.com said “Developers can build two types of applications using SearchMonkey: Enhanced Results and Infobars. Enhanced Results replace the current standard results with a richer display. All the links in the Enhanced Results must point to the site to which the result refers. Infobars are appended below search results and can include metadata about the result, related links or content, or links for user actions (such as adding a movie to a Netflix queue).”

Here is an example work up of an enhanced results application:

Old way of viewing search results

Search result of Yahoo in the present

New way of viewing search results

An enhanced result made with searchmonkey

Remember this is just one enhancement that was made so far there is a few dozen applications submitted and you can view them here at the yahoo search gallery.

If you think that is good news then you better hurry as they are accepting new entries to what these enhancements and info bars will include. If you are a webmaster or just a hobby enthusiast, Yahoo is holding a developers contest and awarding prizes. Each category has a $2,500 prize and all entries are eligible for the $10,000 grand prize. Here is a list of the 4 categories:

• Best Enhanced Result

• Best Infobar

• Most Innovative Use of Structured Data

• Best Data Service

It ends this Saturday so you only have 4 more days left so go to searchmonkeychallenge.com and design a search result application you think would be useful to viewers and you may become a lucky winner.

There is a good deal of information about SearchMonkey, more then I can write in one post so head on over to Yahoo’s blog where you can read both as a user and a developer on the progress of Yahoo’s new face.

Jim Trivolette
“The SEO Doctor”
Blackwood Productions

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Web 2.0 not just a passing trend
June 10 2008

Web 2.0 is no longer just a trend it is becoming a standard of life on the internet. Many things get developed on the web by webmasters who try to gain better traffic, whether it is by funneling in viewers from some external source or by trying things to improve search engine rankings. This is how web 2.0 came to exist. Webmasters in an effort to bring a breath of life to their sites came up with new ways to draw visitors to their respective sites forming a basis of socialization and bringing some interactivity and functionality to the sites. This gave viewers bigger and better reasons to visit these sites. This is why SEO companies like Blackwoodproductions.com has developed an SEO 2.0 style in it’s internet marketing efforts.

Unlike other useful trends we have seen in the past for gaining search engine rankings and traffic, this new spin on internet marketing did quite well and the search engines did not choose to penalize sites that utilized this powerful marketing strategy. In fact as webmasters that chose to go the method of web 2.0 and the act of socialization has garnered more traffic to their sites then they have imagined. Hence web 2.0 is not just a growing trend but a standard that all sites will eventually have to contend with. In the very near future sites that do not add some type up web 2.0 functionality will have to adept and absorb these personal applications or perish to those that keep the viewer not only informed but entertained.

So, what is Google’s real view about web 2.0 and interactive socialization? Well…. They think it is great! Google can interpret that sites have a trust factor and therefore garner them better rankings because of the constant and repeat traffic of viewers that frequent the site to leave posts or reviews.

For all you webmasters out there that don’t know how to jump on the web 2.0 bandwagon or do not know enough about coding to bring some needed functionality to your site, there is nothing to worry about. As previously mentioned web 2.0 is no longer just a trend it is a living evolving facet of the internet and Google seems to think so too. Google is creating and releasing tools for webmasters to add web 2.0 functionality to their sites.

They are still Beta testing their new software and are reviewing applicants as test sites, but Google is making it easier than ever for webmasters to bring forms of socializing to your sites. From members areas to product reviews Google is making it so you do not need to know any coding you just select what functionality you would like your site to have and Google will generate the code for you to copy paste into your site.

For those of you who can’t wait for the general public release you can go to http://www.google.com/friendconnect/ and apply to become one of the 1st webmasters to be included in Google’s new wave of web 2.0 widgets.

Jim Trivolette
“The SEO Doctor”
Blackwood Productions