Like every year in media, and especially in an industry that’s less than two decades old (think about that SEM isn’t old enough to drive yet), it’s been a year of great changes and innovations to keep up with. We were introduced to terms like “Wonder Wheel” and added “MicroHoo” to our vocabularies. Wolfram|Alpha was the year’s first Google-killer-in-waiting, followed by Twitter (yes, people were saying it would replace Google), Bing and the still-to-come Yahoo-Microsoft hybrid.
And so the eternal question persists: What’s changed? How do we optimise to the new landscape and stay ahead of our competition?
Well, for starters, do you remember the things you were told to do back in 2004 to make your site rank or perform well? Did you do them? Or are you still doing them in the midst of all the changes that you’re making?
Of course, there have been changes in how engines rank results, and new opportunities are on the rise. Google is planning a new emphasis on page load speed, and wants more real-time results in its searches — even if no one else does.
Does this mean that SEO fundamentals can be thrown out the window? Absolutely not. It’s more important than ever to make sure that your content is visible, authoritative, and targeted to the right keywords.
Storefronts have been around for centuries. While the means have changed, the basics are still there. The advent of electric signs, television advertising, giant inflatable gorillas, and Web sites hasn’t changed the fact that your store isn’t going to get much business if people can’t find your front door.
In the same way, it’s not going to mean much to update your copy to a tightly controlled keyword density if the engines can’t see it in the first place. By all means, bring in new modules and site elements, but make sure that these upgrades, and the rest of your site, are grounded in visibility, authority, and the right keywords at every step.
Back to Basics
Thoroughly take care of your fundamentals first and you’ll find that your site and your business are in a position to weather the biggest changes. It will also give you the time and resources necessary to pursue the newest and most aggressive strategies elsewhere to layer on top of a firm foundation.
That’s exactly what we do here at Creative Spark, build firm solid foundations for SEO, get the fundamentals in place and build from there.
The Creative Spark’s SEO team will look at the optimisation and marketing of a website to be similar to building a house. Before you can begin building there is a lot of work that must be done: plans need to be developed, approvals and so forth, and then the foundation must be built. Skipping these steps might allow you to build your site more quickly but you’re going to find that by skipping these crucial steps that you won’t get full enjoyment or satisfaction from it. Problems will arise that were not foreseen because planning was overlooked.

Happy Christmas from all of us at Creative Spark

The short story is this. By watching what you click on in search results, Google can learn that you favour particular sites. For example, if you often search and click on links from Amazon that appear in Google’s results, over time, Google learns that you really like Amazon. In reaction, it gives Amazon a ranking boost. That means you start seeing more Amazon listings, perhaps for searches where Amazon wasn’t showing up before.
The results are custom tailored for each individual. For example, let’s say someone else prefers Barnes & Nobles. Over time, Google learns that person likes Barnes & Noble. They begin to see even more Barnes & Nobles listings, rather than Amazon ones.
Of course, people will be clicking on a variety of sites, in search results. So it’s not a case of having one favorite that that simply shows up for everything. Indeed, Google’s other ranking factors are also still considered. So that person who likes Amazon? If they’re looking for a plumber, Amazon probably isn’t close to being relevant, so the personalization boost doesn’t help. But in cases where Amazon might have been on the edge? Personalisation may help tip into the first page of results. And personalisation may tip a wide variety of sites into the top results, for a wide variety of queries.

About Google Wave

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

What is a wave?

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when. A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

If you’re running an online shop, Google’s new Commerce Search may be worth having a look at. Google describes it as a “search solution designed specifically with online retail enterprises in mind.” Instead of a usual sign up button, you’re asked to contact Google’s sales team. Later on, you can then upload your product data at the Google Merchant Center, and go on to customise your site’s search engine. Google’s admin console lets you “manage product promotions, upload synonym dictionaries” and control search options. This service isn’t free though… you’ll be billed based on the amount of items in your data, as well as the number of searches performed every year.

GCS also has a bunch of user-friendly features that make shopping on online stores easier, and search results more refined and accurate. Some of those features are:

• Speed – GCS leverages Google’s ultra fast platform, because it’s hosted, providing sub-second response times to users.
• Google quality and ranking – GCS analyzes every item in the data feed using proprietary signals to determine its optimal placement in the result set, for more accurate query results for shoppers.
• Parametric search and sorting – GCS allows users to refine or sort results by category, price, brand, or other attribute; this is fully-functional parametric search for e-stores.
• Product boost and promotions – Retailers can boost the relevance of certain items, or highlight specific products during a sale, and cross-sell related products.
• Spell check, stemming and synonyms – By leveraging the larger Google search engine, GCS can include these advanced search and synonym options, so the shopping experience is smoother for customers – even customers who mistype.
• Fast deployment and scale – Since this is a cloud-based offering, GCS can be deployed in days and, because it’s hosted on the Google platform, retailers can scale to meet their higher-demand periods like the holidays without worrying about slowdowns or spikes.