In this inaugural edition of Are You Really Gonna Search That?, Opticon makes a peculiar discovery while conducting keyword research for a snowmobiling company in Whistler, BC.
Web Videos Will Make SEO More Important, Not Less
Savvy companies have increasingly been posting videos on their websites to help connect with customers. But, as video technologies continue to advance, there will be implications for web copywriters, marketers and business owners alike. To get an edge over the competition tomorrow, you need to ensure your company’s videos are ‘SEO ready’, today.
Website Users Still Have the Need for Speed
Website visitors are demanding fast-loading sites, just like they did in the 90s. But are they getting it? Despite faster Internet connections, users complain websites are still too slow, suggest tests conducted by usability specialist Jakob Nielsen.
Outdated SEO Tactic: Search Engine Submissions
While it was once a requisite SEO tactic, submitting a website to search engines is no longer required. Still, several SEO companies continue to aggressively promote search engine submission services.
Search engines like Google now have the ability to quickly and easily discover and index new websites and content through links. So, to get discovered, you just need to get some links pointing to your website.
Is Google Taking a Page From Bing?
When MSN’s Bing was launched last year, it arrived with a new look, featuring photos to entice users. Well, it looks like Google’s starting to flirt with that strategy…
Google to Reward Fast Websites
Google will soon be unveiling a new search architecture called Google Caffeine, which promises to be faster, and bring users social media updates in real time.
From an SEO perspective, it will reportedly inject a new ranking factor into the algorithm — website speed. As a result, Google will be pushing faster sites higher in the search results, whereas slower sites will find it harder to rank.
On that front, here’s an insightful article you might want to check out: Website Performance: What To Know and What You Can Do.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt Slams Bing
Google CEO Eric Schmidt slammed Microsoft’s new search engine Bing on Fox Business Network this week.
Here are some highlights from Schmidt:
“It’s not the first (search-engine market) entry for Microsoft. They do this about once a year. From Bing’s perspective, they have a bunch of new ideas and there are some things that are missing. We think search is about comprehensiveness, freshness, the scale and size of what we do. And it’s difficult for them to copy that…”
“(We’re) actually not (spending more money in response to Microsoft’s advertising blitz), given the name. But the fact of the matter is that we are spending all of our time on exactly what we’ve always done, which is innovation. I don’t think Bing’s arrival has changed what we’re doing. We are about search, we’re about making things enormously successful, by virtue of innovation…”
“You earn (the No. 1 spot). You don’t buy it with ads. You earn it, and you earn it customer by customer, search by search, answer by answer. And we believe that today we beat our competitors because we’re so focuses on comprehensiveness, speed, freshness and having the depth that people really care about.”
Schmidt is free to share his views, but ultimately it’s the market’s opinion that counts. So far, Google seems safe, but Yahoo might start losing sleep soon.
Read more at Seattle P-I.
Bing Bing Bing!
Microsoft launched the new version of its search engine called Bing earlier this month.
Is it a Google killer? Unlikely, given Googling is a deep-seated habit amongst the majority of Internet users. But it’s certainly chasing #2 search engine Yahoo.
Bing represents the third rebranding of MSN’s search engine products, preceded by MSN Search and to Live Search.
StatCounter analyzed search engine market share two weeks before and after the formal launch of Bing on May 28 (May 14 to May 27 and May 28 to June 10). For the US market it found:
- Google decreased from 78.68% to 77.94% (-0.74%)
- Yahoo decreased from 11.46% to 10.76% (-0.7%)
- Microsoft (Bing, MSN Search and Live Search) increased from 7.4% to 9% (+1.6%)
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