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It's not your father's Google anymore. If you're still dutifully optimizing your title tags and checking your rankings, you're behind the curve. It's not that those things don't matter anymore--it's that so many other things matter, too. In just the last two years, Google has introduced a world of changes to organic search that have upended both the way people search and the results that they get. More importantly, what marketers must do to stay in front of searchers has changed, too. And the combination of all of these factors means the true scope of the changes are even more complex. So, no, Google Panda has nothing to do with bears. Google+ could be a minus for you if you don't take action. Google Search Plus Your World is actually about personalized search and social media. And Google Instant and Google Caffeine don't mean they are going into business against Nescafe. Don't keep running the same SEO campaigns that worked in 2010, because they might not work the same way now. Find out what has changed in Google Search so that you can change, too.
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© 2012 Mike Moran Group LLC
Mike Moran
www.mikemoran.com
The 5 Things You Need to Know about the New Google Search
Mike Moran
Chief Strategist, Converseon
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
It’s not your father’s Google anymore
Optimize your titles
Get links to your pages
Steer clear of spam
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
That Google search box looks the same as ever
Same old logo
Same old search button
And, of course, “I’m Feeling Lucky”
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Since 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 are
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Google 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?
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Collect content faster and faster.1
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Many searches now have up-to-the-minute results
Many searches contain results within an hour of your search
44 minutesago
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
What does that mean to a search marketer?
Some searches require fresh results
If you don’t have them, you don’t show up
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Google Instant shows results as you type
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Show search results faster.2
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
What happens when people accept suggestions?
Fewer unique keywords, if only because of misspellings
Might bemoreemphasison paidresults
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Google 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 Instant
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Google Plus and other social activity counts
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Use social cues as markers of quality.3
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
The 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
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89% of clicks on page 1
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Black Hat SEO experts fool everybody
They fool Google
They fool searchers
They are extremely smartand hardworking
If it works for you,good luck
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Some 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 wantsis high quality search results
for the searchers
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
If social activity doesn’t match link analysis…
…it seems more suspicious to Google as spam
It’s difficult for spammers to simulate both
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
And some content has nothing better
The views are the best indicator of video quality
Links to videos are not as strong
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
What if some spam slips through the cracks?
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Human raters doublecheck page quality.4
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
So what’s Google Panda?
A new release of the Google search ranking algorithm
It was born almost a year ago
But it just keeps growingin importance
Every few months, itchanges
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Panda 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 getbumped higher in ranking
The sites they don’t likeare shoved down
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Machine 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 thelow-rated sites, your sitegets ranked lower
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
What 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 words
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
What 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, butnot 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!
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
It’s not just about spamming
Most of you don’t practice real black hat SEO
But you don’t win by examining the terms of service like a legal document
You see what works forall three parties
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Google Searchers
You
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
That wasn’t just bad luck
Tactics that help everyone get rewarded
Tactics that help only you don’t
Maybe you should stick to what will work long-term
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Google Searchers
You
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Should 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 site
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Is 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 follow
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Don’t be a good scout. Be good at business.
You’re not trying out for 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 successwill follow
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Google Searchers
You
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Google Search Plus World adds your friends
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Make everything personal.5
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
If 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 on
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Personalization can be toggled on and off
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
This is a response to Bing’s deal with Facebook
Bing finds all public content, just like Google
But it also finds results your friends recommend
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
In fact, all of these changes might be in reaction
Microsoft’s market share keeps creeping up
Bing’s global share is trending heavily up
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Source: Forbes
introduced
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
And how about Bing’s US share?
Google’s share is flat since 2009
Bing hassteadilyrisen
And Bingpowers allYahoo!searches
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Source: Comscore
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Bing has grown to 30% of US searches
This chart is from one year ago
Bing had made significant improvement in share
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Source: Mashable
Bing
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
This was a prediction from one year ago
It’s extreme
It’s not happening
But do youthink thatGoogle isrunningscared?
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Source: State of Search
Bing
Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Google has arrested the slide
A year later, Microsoft is still around 30%
But Google is still innovating
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Mike Moran
© 2011 Mike Moran
Thank you!
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www.mikemoran.com
