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6 Things to Expect if Google Decaf Gets a “Caffeine” Boost

6 Things to Expect if Google Decaf Gets a “Caffeine” Boost

With the latest Google search announcement of its BETA Caffeine engine, what can marketers expect if Google flips a switch or starts a transition to a newer “next-generation” infrastructure?

Now that Google’s sandbox beta engine has stabilized – it was previously too volatile to run comprehensive and accurate testing – we’ve evaluated rankings for a sample set of 40 retail keywords. We looked at ten major retail brand names (keywords), ten retail head terms (single keywords), ten retail torso terms (two-word phrases) and ten retail long-tail phrases (four-word phrases) and compared the search results on the first three pages of both engines (standard Google and “Caffeinated” Google).

40 Retail Keywords Used in the Analysis

Six things stood out to us as notable differences that could impact marketers when Google makes the switch.

1. Domains and rankings will fluctuate.

How much would a shift from Google in its present state to Google Caffeine affect search rankings for your keywords? Our prediction: substantially. Our exercise shows that rankings would definitely experience a shake-up.

In comparing Google now (Decaf) to the future (Beta Caffeine) against our sample keyword set, we found a significant percentage change for domains across various positions (see chart below).

While 40 retail keywords do not comprise a huge sample size, this exercise shows first page rankings (1-10) shift about 15 percent in Caffeine. Looking at only the head and torso keywords, these one and two-word phrases saw up to a 50 percent difference in the domains appearing within results 1-10*.

* Percentage Gained/Dropped represents the percentage of domains that ranked in Decaf and no longer appeared in results on Caffeine for these positions.

2. The index size, or “competition,” of single keyword search relevance will increase.

Your domain will compete against a larger pool of web catalog pages indexed for single word brand or head terms. It appears that Google will index more pages on the Web, so the potential “results pool” will be greater and thus more competitive for those trying to get to the top of the page. This adds value for searchers because it will ideally increase the accuracy of results.

3. You’ll see a boost in relevance for long-tail searches.

In contrast to the increased number of pages being indexed for single word brand and head terms, the index size for multi-keyword phrase searches in Caffeine appears to yield less competition via Google’s Web catalog / Index. Therefore, if Google were to get a “Caffeine” jolt, your pages would likely compete against a smaller pool of pages for more exacting searches. This might be the key to Google’s logic when it comes to improving accuracy. This could also give larger brands an advantage for their product and deep level pages, which could potentially see a boost in relevance for long-tail searches.

4. You’ll get results (SERPs) in half the time, on average.

While it would be hard to notice with the naked eye, the new engine appears to generate SERPs in half the time. This would improve usability and user experience on Google. After all, searchers want accuracy– but they also don’t like waiting around.

5. Blended results will increase.

Expect the average number of Universal listings to increase slightly within the first three pages of results. This includes blended instances of video, news, images, books, blogs and local search results. Google’s Caffeine will have a greater consideration for Google’s other vertical databases, or those outside its standard web catalog.

Text/Web Listings VS Percentage of other Universal Listing Types:

Vs.

6. There will be a social jolt.

Overall, Google Caffeine would have more social media listings compared to Google Decaf due to a lift in YouTube listings.

Looking at the differences more closely, Caffeine currently appears to be indexing less “Communication” sites (i.e. blogs, message boards and review sites) and “Collaboration” sites (such as Wikis and directories). However, it is indexing more “Multimedia” sites such as video/music/photo sharing sites and “lifecasting” social sites such as Facebook for the keywords we tested.

Vs.

Categories defined:

  • Communication: Blogs, microblogs, social networking, “answer” sites, message boards, etc.
  • Collaboration: Wikis, Directories, Office Apps, Social Bookmarks, and generally any site designed for document publishing and revision
  • Entertainment: Virtual worlds, online games, and generally any site designed for an entertainment experience
  • Multimedia: Video sharing, photo sharing, lifecasting, music and audio sharing sites, etc.

*****

What does all of this mean for marketers?
Marketers will need to keep a close eye on their own set of keywords and determine how results change if a switch-over does takes place. Since this is not an algorithm update, altering your best practices or natural search tactics drastically is not recommended. However, if your keywords shift in rank, you will need to refresh your strategy and focus in on any results drop-offs, or take advantage of subsequent wins.

We reviewed a relatively small sample set of keywords for this test and Caffeine is still in beta, so it is possible that the differences outlined here could change before the launch of Google’s updated engine. Nonetheless, it’s clear that with Caffeine, Google is trying to improve the search experience with faster, more relevant results from a wider swath of the Web’s content. This is good news for everyone – Google, consumers and marketers.

-Martha Mukangara, SEO Analyst at 360i, contributed to this report.

5 Important Tips To Defining Your Social Marketing Strategy.

5 Important Tips To Defining Your Social Marketing Strategy.
Joseph Murphy – Social Media Consultant
www.josephmurphyconsulting.com
@jmurphy13, toosquare@gmail.com

1.  Refine Your Goals

Today it is very hot to talk about Twitter & Facebook, just like a few years ago Myspace was king.  All of these tools can be quite effective if used correctly and the first step in this adventure is to refine your goals.  What exactly are you trying to achieve by putting your business on Facebook or Twitter?  Do you want more customers?  Do you want to develop an arm of your corporate culture (see below) to extend into the community? Do you just want to be hip and cool?  Well each of these are valid questions (even the last one) but make sure you spend time with your team and determine what your goal is.

Nothing fails worse than just having your web2.0 team running about creating accounts and updating all the social networking sites like crazy.  Make sure your goals are defined and this will lead you right into the next step.

2.  Determine Your Market

Each social networking site has a target audience, now many of these are quite broad but they can be defined.  Twitter for instance is seeing increased growth in the 50+ market and in the overseas market.  Facebook continues to grow on all fronts but seems to be favored by tech savvy middle and upper middle class users.  Myspace has become a haven for musicians and artists, and LinkedIn is favored by corporate users.   Check out the public numbers from each site, check out how each site works and determine if it fits in with your customer or user base.  If you are looking to target the 50+ market perhaps Twitter is a good starting point for your social marketing campaign.  If you have many corporate customers, perhaps LinkedIn will be a good starting point.  Your base market should determine where to start your social marketing strategy.

This is very important, I have seen many companies jump head first into all the social marketing sites with no rhyme or reason.  Create your first social site based on your customers needs and their demographic, why create a Flickr (a image gallery sharing site) account if you are not providing images to your customers?  Keep focused on your goals and use this to determine your market.

3.  Uncover Your Culture

Your company culture is really what you are trying to sell, the social marketing sites are more than just large advertising boards, they are a whole new way to think about customers. When you are posting on Twitter or Facebook for example try to post as if you are talking directly to a person and you want feedback.   Nobody likes a company that just constantly sends out updates that are strictly marketing speak or advertisements.  A good example of this is a small clothing company I worked with who had a large fan base on Facebook but never really had any customer comments.  This is because they were constantly just sending out updates like, “50% off this weekend” and “New items in stock”.   These are important information updates but by changing their updates to “What do you think of these new items?” or “What kind of sale should we have this weekend?”  They were able to really get the customers involved in the product and their fan pages, thus increasing their culture.

Uncover what your company is all about and try to express this in your updates to the social community.  You want to get your customers involved in your culture, you want them involved in the experience.  After you know what you are selling, and you determine where you want to jump off at, then its time to uncover your culture.  This is a great step in helping your social marketing campaign really get off the ground and deliver where you need it to.

4.  Establish Accountability

One of the worst mistakes I have seen in social marketing is being non-responsive or secretive.  Remember you are entering a brave new world of openness and accountability to your customer base, you are targeting them directly, and you are delivering your culture to them and making them want to be a part of that.  A key element of this is allowing the customer to voice their opinions on things without taking it to heart.  Many a social marketing campaign has failed because of a companies inability to handle criticism, or being to quick to delete negative comments on an update.  If you start getting negative comments about your company, this is just what you were looking for, this gives you the opportunity to directly address these concerns and turn a naysayer or disgruntled customer into a return happy customer.  (Keep in mind that you always want to delete offensive, racist, or comments filled with vulgarity.)

Make sure you are delivering in your accountability.  Have a plan before you start your social marketing campaign on exactly who will respond to negative comments, and what will be said.  If this involves a few meetings that is fine, but make sure you respond quickly and with the same culture driven voice you have used for updates or other complaints.   Nothing ticks off a customer worse than to be treated differently than another customer.   Accountability is effective policy and resolution of a customers problem.

5.  Track Your Results

An effective social media campaign will bring results in that you can see.  Are your Facebook fan page numbers growing?  Are your website unique hits or page views increasing?  All of these items can be tracked either with in house web analytic software, or by using something like Google Analytics on your website.  On Facebook you can see the results directly with customer responses, page hits, and new fans.  On Twitter you can see if your followers are increasing.

Tracking your results is a key element to see if your message is being delivered effectively.  If after 6 months or so of steady posting and interaction you do not see any results it might be time to go over the steps again and make sure your social marketing campaign is hitting all the right markers.

5 SEO Content Mistakes You’re Making

May 28th, 2009 | Author: Angie Haggstrom

1. Keywords, Keywords, Keywords!

Keywords are important, but they should take a back seat to your topic. Match your chosen keywords to your content. Recent changes in the search engines only magnify this point.

If the reader wants to know about oranges, don’t tell him about apples. Tell him everything you know about oranges and use ‘orange’ related keywords.

To find the right topic, consider your site’s organization. Where you will put the content? Why is the reader in a specific area of your site?

Want to know a bit more? Copywriter Glenn Murray recently made an excellent video on how to organize keywords and content topics.

In the end, a logical order with the right topics and keywords will satisfy both search engines and people.

Oh, and before I forget, stop keyword stuffing! It sounds terrible, looks bad, the search engines can tell, and YES people without SEO experience can tell. Focus on placement, and forget density!

2. Failing To Target The Right Audience

A majority of SEO copywriting has nothing to do with search engine optimization; it focuses on your target client. In fact, the more you know about your audience the better. What’s your customer’s main priority? What do they do for fun? What do they know? What problem can you solve? Answer these questions, and you’ll end up with perfect copy every time.

Stay current. People want to read about what’s going on right now or discuss relevant issues. Social media and search tools such as Google Insights are full of hot topics. Be sure to use them!

3. Providing The Same Old Thing

If you want to market an eBook to advanced Twitter users, basic topics such as ‘how to use Twitter’ are overdone and a waste of time. It certainly won’t make you sound like an authority. Instead, improve the user’s experience and make them a better tweeter with advanced topics such as ‘how to increase your retweet rates’.

If you want to add common information to your content, link to a quality source. On a commercial site, get creative with the basics (offer an eBook, or create a database). This makes it optional for the reader and leaves the reader with nothing but pure, juicy tidbits.

Bottom line: be unique, give the reader an ‘ah’ or a ‘D’oh’ moment, and prove why you are a superior source.

4. Using The Wrong Resources

Wikipedia is NOT a trusted resource! If you’ve made this mistake, you are in good company, but don’t repeat it. Only use Wikipedia to get a general idea of a topic rather than collecting facts.

Incorrect statements cause you to lose all credibility with your clients. In some cases, you could even do harm. Imagine your doctor consulting Wikipedia before you’re supposed to go under the knife. Would you feel comfortable?

Use several resources and always check them before you write your content. Wolfram seems promising in the straight facts department, but I would still check them.

5. Not Showing Off Good Content To The Fullest Extent

For website copy, use content to add value to your products. For example, use it to get into your reader’s mind and show them what life will be like if they buy your do-it-all new gadget. But, don’t fall into the trap of listing the features. Instead, show how the client will feel and think once they try your gadget.

If you write blog posts or articles, don’t write them and leave them sit. Tweet them, link to them, use social media, refer others to it, and treat good content like it matters. The difference is astounding!

And, here’s a freebie:

6. Deal with the negatives for a product or service before someone else does. This keeps you in control of the situation and it sounds a lot more honest and credible (not that it isn’t!). For example, if you price a product low, why is it so cheap? What are its real downfalls?

Be honest, but don’t say ‘I make a few new points that other’s don’t’, say ‘I have been in the industry for 20 years and have learned the finer points that come only with experience’. The trick is how you address those negatives!

Content involves more than throwing words at the page. Great content brings people, products, search engines, and your business together all in one place.

How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business by Michael Stelzner

Can Twitter actually help my business or is it a complete waste of my valuable time? This was the very question I asked myself only a few months back.

Perhaps you’ve pondered the same?

When people I respect started singing the praises of Twitter, I decided to give it a go. At first I just didn’t get it. However, after a short while I was shocked at the level of access to high profile individuals I was able to achieve.
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Social Media Revolution

Search Engine Marketing Plays a Key Role in Maintaining Business

[SBWIRE] — Companies are moving towards this new domain, Search Engine Marketing, with more enthusiasm to provide common man, a more relevant, focused & helpful tools & facilities to increase connectivity among internet users throughout the world. Search Engine Marketing is a very interesting field that helps websites to reach at top among all bulk data. These newly defined marketing skills provide a better hand to motivate more users to this modern global connective world.
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