This is a recording of one of our more popular webinars.

Online Marketing in 2012: Learn about future trends that will change online marketing in the next five years.  Focused on the hotel, resort and vacation rental market. Topics include: email marketing, link building, the future of SEO,  reputation management, web 2.0 and segmentation.

There are lots of developments out there that SEO folks are watching and talking about.  While they may not be important yet, they might become have an impact on your search engine rankings in the future.

Trust is a big SEO topic in the Blizzard Office.  Google has made it clear they want trustworthy sites to show up in their rankings.  Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the Internet is a cesspool.   While there are many factors that can affect your trust, here are a few worth reading more about:

• Does Including a Physical Address On Your Website Help Rankings? (by Michael Gray) Clearly, many untrustworthy sites lack of a physical address.   While an address does not appear to be a huge factor now, it could prove interesting for the many “virtual” businesses that don’t have a physical presence.

Wesley Fryer

• Is Page Load Speed Google’’s Next Organic Factor? (by Jeremy Bencken) It sure would make sense.  Slow websites are pretty irritating, and I wouldn’t mind if Google dinged them.
• Beyond Algorithms: A Librarian’s Guide to Finding Web Sites You Can Trust (by Karen G Schneider) is at Google’s Librarian Central.  This librarian says that, among other things, Librarian’s look at:
  • A site’s availability.  Uh, being down is a bad thing.  But this also means putting valuable content behind passwords or pocketbooks.
  • The site’s credibility.  Who owns, operates and writes the site’s content?
  • External Links: Broken links on your site kills its reputation! (uh oh… this blog has lots of those)
• Optimize Your Search Engine Listings for Improved CTR (by Chris Silver Smith) points out that Google may be posturing to give sites with higher CTRs a boost in their rankings.  Makes sense!  If people “vote” by clicking, then give the people what they want.

Click Thru Rate (CTR) is a hot topic because you can get more traffic from your existing presence by making it more appealing.  Increasing the CTR from search results, PPC search results, banner ads, listings sites, etc. is big business and becoming more important and accessible to small businesses.  One area of promise is the ability to enhance your listings in search engines with “rich content” that really catch the eye and provide useful information.

Last Year, Yahoo introduced SearchMonkey which was a way to add rich content to search engine listings.   These enhanced listings have increased Click Thru Rates by as much as 15%. Now, Google has introduced Rich Snippets.   Both SearchMonkey and Rich Snippets promise to let websites enhance the way they show up in search engines and increase CTRs.   This new opportunity is too new for most businesses… for now. But, keep you eye on this, because it promises to open up a new area to improve your online results.

Today our All About Google Webinar series continues on the topic of Keyword Research.

Here are the Powerpoint slides to go along with the Webinar.

All attendees will receive access to a recorded version of the Webinar in the next few days.

We just wrapped up the second webinar in our Summer All About Google Series.  During this webinar we discussed how Google Local (Maps) Works and the factors that help you rank better and the factors that negatively affect your rankings.

A recorded version will be sent to all attendees.

Here is a powerpoint presentation from the Webinar:

The link I recommended for people to learn more is Local Search Ranking Factors by David Mihm. It is an excellent and informative article on what works in Local search. It also has links to other articles that are quite informative — use the article as a jumping off point to learn all you really need to know about Local Search

Our last couple of articles has been about how Google is offering its searchers more power to revise and personalize their search results.

What is going on here and what does this mean in terms of online strategy?

Google has made it easier for the consumers to slice and dice their search results.  Clearly this feature makes it easier for the average searcher to create more powerful searches. For the business owner, this is one more step in a Google trend: the overall power of a traditional top 10 organic listing continues to be diluted.

1. First the top 10 organic was diluted by PPC, which put 3 results above it.
2. Second, it was diluted by Google Maps 10-box which puts 10 results above it in “local” searches.
3. Then it was diluted by Google’s “Universal Search” which began inserting videos, news and images into the top ten.  Although, this seems to be happening less often now.
4. Concurrently it began being diluted by “personalized” search which gives users the power to change their search and gives customized results to some users.
5. Meanwhile, Google’s International search engines and Mobile search are also on the rise
6. Now, it is being diluted by letting users more easily change their results based upon time-frame, alternative recommended keyword phrases, and specialty (reviews, videos, forum) searches.

Who is going to benefit by this? The search consumer.

Another beneficiary is the website marketer who has revised their search strategy to focuses on local search, videos, reviews, press releases and all the other activities that create a broad footprint of content for Google to use to dilute their organic listings.  Give Google what it wants!

Back in 1999 we segmented SEO priorities into search engines:

• Yahoo
• AltaVista
• Excite
• Google
• MSN
• Lycos
• Ask Jeeves
• Goto

Now, in 2009 we divide up search into content segments: Read the rest of this entry »

Google’s SearchWiki has been integrated into Google’s search results for 8 months now, but many searches still haven’t really noticed it or used it.  When you do a search, you will see Search wiki next to every result:

By clicking on the up arrow, you move that search result to the top of YOUR searches. The X button removes the results completely.   The little comment bubble below the search lets you add your own personal comments to any search. These comments will show up in your future searches. Google SearchWiki lets you personalize your own Google search results.  Here is what it looks like the next time you search:

Read the rest of this entry »

Many searchers have seen and used Google’s newest search features - Search Options and The Wonder Wheel.  The Wonder Wheel is hidden in the “Search Options” link that now shows up at the top of every search:

Click on the show options and you will be offered several choices to refine or restrict your search results.  My two favorites are the time based results (so I can find NEW content when I search) and the Wonder Wheel:

If you click on the Wonder Wheel, you will find a tool that recommends related searches.  Notice you can click several levels deep and as you click the results change in the right column. Also notice how you can move backwards and forward through the wonder wheel. It really is quite… wonderful.

Check out this video from Google Search Engineer Adam Stepinski talks about everything you can do with Google’s Wonder Wheel, a tool in the Search Options Panel:

Also, you may want to look at the new search engine from Microsoft, Bing, which adds suggested related searches directly into the left column:

Clearly, the search engines are making it easier and easier for consumers to refine their searches. Although, Bing is showing a lot different recommendations than Google.

In the long run, this is another part of the trend that is diluting the power of the traditional top placement in organic search (by encourage consumers to refine their search)