How Search Engine Wars Affect Your Placement

The major search engines are in an advertising war. They are in constant battle for advertising dollars and their market share can mean the difference between life and death or millions in revenue. The question is; “how do search engine advertisement wars affect my placement”?

The answer is “A Lot”!

The manner in which Google, Yahoo and Live go about their business can not only spell life and death for them, but for your site as well. All three of the majors are large publicly traded companies that need advertisement revenue to survive. The latest market share breakdowns show a widening gap between Yahoo and Google, but also show their commitment to bleed every cent out of their advertisers.

A new report by comScore Media Metrix is stating that the 4 majors, Google, Yahoo, Live and AOL (yeah AOL, I am wondering where ASK is and why it isn’t considered a major engine) have all seen an increase in audience, but a decline in Time On Site. The exception is Google which actually had an increase, but I believe that increase is BS. They are taking into consideration search tool bar traffic as well as the new iGoogle home page. In fact this report is missing important factors such as RSS and the advertising opportunities that are now arising within feeds.

Another factor is the amount that these engines are spending on Web 2.0 sites such as YouTube (Google) and Flickr (Yahoo), but again these reporters are missing the 100 million spent on FeedBurner by Google and how their total control over RSS and the advertising that goes in the feeds will allow Google to dominate yet another market share. To add your AdSence code into your FeedBurner feed you have to be invited to do it. This is very similar to Google’s invitation only GMail ad campaign. They want to make you seem special in getting to put ads in your feed, just like you were “special” to get a GMail account.

So Google is the 500 pound gorilla in the search engine room and making their advertising space larger and larger to accomodate more marketing inventory. By doing so they are also selling out the natural or organic side of search, which is why so many of us used Google in the first place. The second that there are ads on iGoogle, that will be it for me!

All the reports and Metrics are fine for advertisers that spend big money, but how does it effect us normal people? The truth is, the advertising trends are much less relevant to a site owner than the changes in how search engine results pages (SERP’s) are being put together. All the majors have instituted advanced media, news, video and user-generated content into the SERP’s. THIS is what we need to stay focused on. How to obtain placement in the new world order of multimedia SERP’s.

Google has Universal Search, Yahoo has Search Assist, Live was created with Web 2.0 in mind (yes Microsoft actually got a leg up on the Internet for once) and ASK just unveiled its new multimedia search program. In fact you should give ASK a try when searching for news or media. Its search is in my opinion the best out there. The Teoma search algorithm is nearly as good as Google used to be, and it is very difficult to spoof Teoma the way Google can be baited and stuffed. This leads to more relevant search results on ASK then on either Google or Yahoo. I also like ASK’s ad space. It’s not so much the search engine, but their partner sites that make ASK a good buy. Excite, Bloglines, iWon, and Evite are just a few of the media spaces that are driven by Teoma.

All in all, the best thing you can do is to have as much Web 2.0 applications as possible in your Internet Presence. Social Network Marketing is not a fad, it is the future. More and more people are getting their content driven to them, rather than going out and finding it. To leverage those users, your site must have an RSS backbone and be media conscience. If your site doesn’t have a blog, get one, now! Take the time to plant your RSS feeds, articles and site. Avoid paid directories and be careful not to buy links from sites that are not relevant to your content.

Related Posts:

• Changing Face Of Google – Universal Search Explained – post about Universal search and how it will effect your website.
• Yahoo Update – Search Assist – Yahoo’s Search Assist changes the SERP’s and how users use them.
• RSS Brings The News To You – Overview of how users are having content driven to them, and not going out and searching for it.
• RSS Real Simple Syndication Overview – Everything you need to know about RSS.
• Social Network Marketing – Web 2.0 Explained – How to leverage Web 2.0 on your site.
• Search Engine Optimization and Social Network Marketing – Overview of Web 2.0 SEO and how they come together in a powerful online marketing combo.

Managed Content Syndication Services

If you have a website or a blog by now you must know that it has to be promoted in one fashion or another. I have written a lot of posts about different ways in which to promote your sites in both search engines and RSS directories. I have been getting a lot of emails from people asking for an overview of website promotion. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I am going to talk about my company’s primary service and use that as a blueprint for those of you that do self promotion.

A lot of my peers have asked me why I give so much information away, particularly about marketing tactics and SEO. The fact is most of my readers are advanced users and would find this information either the way I have through trial and error, or by searching the Internet for it. SEO and Social Network Marketing, especially optimizing WordPress is a much covered subject. The clients that I have now and are on the lookout for, are companies that don’t have the personnel to execute a Web 2.0 marketing plan. Whether they lack the programmers or content writers, they just can’t put the time in to commit to Web 2.0. Make no mistake, if your business relies on the Internet, especially organic traffic, you must put in the time and resources to be successful.

Content Creation And Syndication

Assuming that you have either a website with a blog, or a blog system that serves as your site, the 2 primary things to work on is solid and optimized content, and syndication. I am working on several articles about WordPress optimization both from the writing side and from the server side. In fact I have been putting together a plugin package that will take your WordPress system to a new level. I know that not everyone uses WordPress so I am also creating a new real estate portal that will be using TypePad as well as another mortgage related portal that is using ModX as its content management system. I have a rather large real estate company as a client and have had unbelievable success with WordPress, but I do think it is wise to not put all my eggs in one basket. So as I work with these other systems I will post articles on the SEO progress of these other systems.

One last thing before I get started; all of the guides that have to do with WordPress are using standard SEO practices, so if you have a regular website you can take the tactics and easily apply them. The hardest part of Web 2.0 on a static site is RSS feeds. It is possible with either CaRP Evolution or even Feed For All to create dynamic news feeds from static pages. This will allow you to utilize feed and article planters as well as ping services and XML-RPC on a non-blog site. I have had a lot of skeptics that say XML-RPC on a static site is a waste of time, or too hard to implement and not worth the effort. I am running a major test series now on a high profile website. Next week will be the first post in a series of articles explaining XML-RPC and how to utilize it on static sites.

Get Found Now’s best selling service is the Managed Content Syndication Service. It basically is a Web 2.0 action plan for businesses with a static website. I have only done 2 jobs in the last 3 years for clients that had no web presence whatsoever, but I have done hundreds of upgrades and WordPress installs for businesses that have an existing site. The fact is we have had a great deal of success.

It all starts with a solid content plan that is based upon keyword research. By knowing my clients keywords, I can create URL’s and content that gives the website authority in the search engines for those keywords. It is all about authority. Your page must seem to be an authority on the keywords you are promoting. This is done by moderate keyword stuffing and link baiting the pages with inbound links that have those keywords in the anchor tags.

The key is to plan ahead in your content outline. On a static site I recommend bread crumb linking as the means to ferment deep link navigation, an essential part of SEO and usability. Read my article about Website Usability and Deep Link Navigation for more info. Once you have content the next goal is to get it out on the web.

RSS Syndication is the most powerful means for a website to reach the masses. Read this article if you want an Overview of RSS Syndication. By using RSS Syndication Services you can reach more readers than any other method of organic traffic acquisition. I use FeedBurner to manage all my feeds and have been beta testing FeedBurners RSS to Email service. While it isn’t as sexy as FeedBlitz, it is great to track all your subscribers at once rather than relying on separate analytics.

By taking standard SEO practices, providing original and optimized content, then submitting the site through syndication, Get Found Now has found a recipe for success in Internet Marketing. Our Managed Content Syndication Service is the heart of our social network marketing strategy.