SearchEngineOptimisation.com, only one way up

Google have just launched a new feature known as Google Instant Pages.  The feature causes Google to pre-load the first search result when it is confident that the user will click on that link.  The tool looks like it is set to be an impressive addition to the Google search experience.

The Instant Page tool doesn’t simply pre-load the HTML structure of the page, but also all images, text, external resources and it executes all JavaScript before the user clicks on the link.  Another great feature of Google Instant Pages is that you don’t need to be logged into a Google account for it to work.  It should look something like this:

Amit Singhal, a software engineer at Google, stated that in the testing for Instant Pages, users had saved between 2-5 seconds per search – the time was saved by not having to make the users wait for the page to load.

Seemingly, the only prerequisite of being able to use the feature is using the Google Chrome browser.  Google Instant Pages then becomes a decent promotional feature for the Chrome browser, although the code is open-source and other browsers are able to incorporate it into their software.

Google’s self-confessed obsession with speed may seem a bit pedantic, but it has been proven that increased page load speed can lead to an increase in user engagement, potentially boosting conversion rate.  For this reason, it is a development that should be embraced by those working in search engine optimisation as a possible consideration for future internet marketing strategies.

One question that does need addressing for those with an SEO background is if it will interfere with analytics programs.  The prerendering that occurs, specifically JavaScript executions, could potentially skew analytical measurements such as page views and bounce rate, although it is thought the page visibility API can still measure page views accurately.

What do you think of when you hear the words ‘email marketing’ in SEO? Most people think of flyers in their inbox, promotions or just plain old spam! Google’s Gmail though has a different form of email marketing going on. Regular users of the service will know what we’re talking about – sponsored advertisements along the top bar, above their emails, which are based on the content of a user’s emails.

Google though are setting themselves up for more controversy, as they’re looking to make better use of users’ private data to make ads more targeted and relevant. The new system will gauge which emails users look at most, which they reply to, the identity of their most regular contacts and more. Gmail will essentially build up a profile of users’ mailing habits, and using the information to present relevant adverts.

Google cites an example on their help pages: “If you’ve recently received a lot of messages about photography or cameras, a deal from a local camera store might be interesting. On the other hand if you’ve reported these messages as spam, you probably don’t want to see that deal.”

Google’s already in trouble in Europe with Germany, Spain and France all complaining over the way the company handles private data – France, in fact, has just fined Google over the Street View incident where Google’s cars collected and stored private data.

So is Google taking a risk with this new form of advertising? Are they pushing privacy issues that are already sensitive and invading people’s personal email accounts? Or is it a clever new form of advertising that will reap more rewards than ever before? Let us know what you think in our SEO blog comments below!

Google have been in a lot of hot water lately with Germany and Spain over their privacy policy. According to an article in the Telegraph, Google is looking to change its ranking algorithm in Europe in response to an anti-EU investigation.

Google often changes its algorithm if it feels it can provide a better search experience to the general public, so a change wouldn’t really be anything wildly ground-breaking – it fits in with their overall mission statement. It would also help to placate those in the EU who have complained about Google, from a range of companies to search competitors alike.

But Google are stressing that any changes forthwith in Europe would solely be for the benefit of its users to improve the search experience, and has had no feedback to date from the EU regarding any potential future changes to its algorithm.

Google’s official word on the matter is:

‘Since we started Google we have worked hard to do the right thing by our users and our industry–ensuring that ads are always clearly marked, making it easy for users to take their data with them when they switch services and investing heavily in open source projects. But there’s always going to be room for improvement, and so we’ll be working with the Commission to address any concerns.’

The Commission’s going to take a long time before it reaches a conclusion, but we can’t imagine any other outcome than a healthy compromise when the final judgement is reached. Google’s too ingrained in the lives of ordinary Europeans for there not to be a compromise. And to hear that Google are willing to hear recommendations on how to improve their search algorithm is fantastic news.

It’ll be interesting, as always, to see how any potential changes affect SEO marketing and search practices such as link building, and how search engine marketing companies across the EU have to respond when the judgement is reached. Until then, there’s still a long battle ahead…

Nice to feel wanted, isn’t it? Google recently had that feeling – they’ve announced that they received over 75,000 job applications in one week at the end of January, smashing their own previous record of approximately 65,000 one-week applications in May 2007.

It’s an amazing figure, showing that everybody’s turning to the search giants to further their careers. With such interest in positions at the company, it’s hard to see what areas Google won’t grow in down the line.

Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research at Google, recently blogged: “We’re looking for top talent. We’ll hire as many smart creative people as we can to tackle some of the toughest challenges in computer science; like building a web-based operating system from scratch, instantly searching an index of more than one million gigabytes and even developing cars that can drive themselves.”

Crikey, cars that can drive themselves, eh? A world away from the trappings of search engine optimisation! Google’s growth and ambition is taking them to new, exciting areas – seemingly on an evolutionary scale. And the jobs will be there, especially as Google has announced investment into its European offices.

So with the wealth of talent at Google’s disposal, they can effectively pick and choose who they want to help them move forward and in what areas. We have no doubt the majority of applicants are people with vast potential that can help Google expand across the globe.

This’ll mean, as Google sets out a clear directive for what it wants to achieve in the future, more minds working on improving local SEO link building, PPC and other staple Google services will be presented with a chance to make things better, and improve the amazing search service that Google is known for.

There’s nothing more irritating in organic search engine optimization than writing a good piece of content, only for someone to come along, lift it, claim it as their own and put it on their own website. Well, from an SEO copywriting point of view, that is…

But why should you spend a lot of money on a campaign – or create original content yourself – only to have someone else steal it? It’s the strategy of black-hat and practitioners and content farms. Webmasters have long complained about how unfair it all is, and there isn’t much that can be done if you’re a victim. Well, it sounds like Google has had enough, as highlighted in a recent blog post by Matt Cutts.

“We’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content. We’ll continue to explore ways to reduce spam, including new ways for users to give more explicit feedback about spammy and low-quality sites.”

So Google seem to be laying down the gauntlet when it comes to spam. Altering its algorithm to detect more quality content, and giving more power to the people to blow the whistle on low-quality sites. Want some proof on why an organic SEO campaign is the best way to go? “We recently launched a redesigned document-level classifier that makes it harder for spammy on-page content to rank highly.“

Organic, natural SEO services always has been and always will be the way forward when you want to make your website more visible on search engines such as Google. Google are trying, and to be fair, you can’t expect them to police every single website in existence. So if 2011 does indeed see Google taking a more aggressive approach to spam, content farms and poor SEO copywriting, then the future looks bright for webmasters and searchers alike.

I used to love art in school, and I remembered over the weekend seeing a painting once called ‘Chipmanzee’ by Francis Bacon. I decided to look it up on Google, do some research into it and try and find some more of Mr. Bacon’s work. This is what happened:

Sigh… OK, so I know I’m probably nit-picking. I can easily correct Google, click ‘show results for chipmanzee’ and carry on from there as normal. But it’s all a bit nanny state isn’t it? I’m posting this blog because this isn’t the first time it’s happened to me. When I type something into Google I get presented with another list of search results to what I requested and it’s really starting to grate.

I have eclectic search tastes, and to be consistently told I may have entered the wrong search term is getting on my nerves! Google has taken to not giving me what I want, and I’m considering making the jump to another search engine. Also, what’s the point of professional SEO services if Google keeps putting its arm over your shoulder, taking you to one side and effectively saying ‘hey, we know you asked for this, but we’re going to give you that instead because we think you might have done something wrong’.

It may be something of an overreaction on my part, but I’m finding it’s a function I could do without on a personal level. I understand that it’s probably a time-saver for the average searcher when they accidently misspell a word, but from my experience, it’s causing me nothing but trouble! And that’s not what search is about – not in my opinion anyway. I don’t feel I should have my results dictated to me – I should get organic SEO results for whatever I’ve typed into the search bar instantaneously. If I’m wrong and typed something in error, I’ll learn from my mistake and take it with me. I don’t want my mistakes pre-empted.

Anyway, sorry. Rant over. Now, I need to find something. I think I’ll head over to Google…

Over recent months, Google has made some changes to its Image search as part of the process of updating all its search engine results pages, to offer an alternative or better way of searching for users and it may take another couple of months for the roll-out to complete across the UK following the main test areas. The main difference between the basic image search and the new image search is that the new version has more images.

Rather than having five or six rows of images with descriptions underneath, the new version proposes thousands of images available to view on one page, thus eliminating the need to click through tens if pages to find the image you require. The format looks like a tiled effect really and is strangely compact yet not over busy or cluttered at the same time. The thumbnails are more suited to the newer web browsers and also offer a higher definition image.

One of the initial first complaints from SEO experts and web users has been the lack of text on the images, however it would be silly of us to think Google would eliminate something so important. Google has still made this information available and if you hover your mouse over the image you will see a display showing information such as description, title and source of image, as well as a large version of the thumbnail image.

A common complaint with the old Google Image search was that when a user clicked on the picture through to the site, they were not always presented with the larger version of the image they were expecting. Instead, there would be a tiny, low resolution version that was near as useless and a homepage or other internal web page for a company you were not really interested in, as you simply just wanted the image. Now with the higher resolution images when you do click on the thumbnail you are presented with a fresh page, which offers not only an image that is larger in size but a link to the hosting page of the image, leaving the choice down to you.

Despite all these changes seeming positive on paper, some reviews have not been great. Many SEO experts and members of the general public do not like the new layout and the bad feelings seem to be spreading. Complaints are that the user has to do more work as they have to hover over each image rather than be able to simply see text, plus too many images per page make it confusing to look at and not as visually pleasing. Speed is another factor with rumours of slow loading images, yet surely if we demand higher resolution images then we need to expect something else to give. Luckily, Google was prepared for this and if you do find the new version of image search too complex or simply not to your liking, then simply scroll to the bottom and opt to switch back to basic search.

As far as search engine optimisation tools go, there is so much choice available that it can get a little daunting. At SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk we usually see the same group of tools being used by users or webmasters alike, yet there are some other hidden gems out there which do not seem to be as popular as they perhaps should be. Whilst it always seems slightly unfair to just discuss Google as we know there are many other great search engines out there, the number one search engine does offer a lot of great SEO tools for web users, so it only seems right that we should delve a little deeper into them.

Google Wonder Wheel has been around for a while now yet somehow only seems to be in its early stages. It is not a particularly well-known tool, even by SEO professionals, yet it does have some good features. There are of course arguments and debates around that it is not really necessary and whilst it may not have an astounding effect on they way people search, it certainly is a nice bit of kit.

In case you are unaware what Google Wonder Wheel is, it is basically a tool option which offers an alternative way to display search results. Rather than the standard list view, this tool displays a ‘wheel’ of results. This will basically show the main search phrase in the middle of the wheel, with variations of the search being displayed around the wheel. Google state that it is reminiscent of a mind map, which it is, and because of this it is very easily consumed by the human brain.

The confusion from most people is that there does not appear to be anything wrong with the standard Google search results, so why offer an alternative way? Well, the Google Wonder Wheel is actually a very pleasant and quite fun way to read your display results. It is particularly useful for those who are not quite sure what they want to search for, which a lot of us are not. In case you still do not understand fully, the various results displayed will be very similar to each other, yet from a SEO point of view, will incorporate different keywords.

For example, if you type the word ‘shoes’ into Google, the Wonder Wheel display will show different options such as wedding shoes, designer shoes and casual shoes, as well as brand names. This is great for also browsing multiple searches, as each leg of the wheel will show results just for that topic. It is a very simple way of searching, is visually pleasing and easy to understand. The problem with it however, is that it is not that obvious. The Wonder Wheel option is displayed down the left hand side of Google search, underneath the standard view. Once clicked on, all results will be shown in the wheel format. Whilst it is not particularly hidden away, if you do not know it is there you will not look for it.

Unless you have been locked in a cupboard for years, you will have become aware that users now have a choice in which web browser they use, and one which has caught on perhaps more than we all anticipated is Google Chrome. Many of us, even experienced web users, were not fully aware there was much else out there other than Internet Explorer, so to imagine using a browser created by a search engine seemed a little alien to some people. It came as no surprise to most web professionals when Google first launched its own web browser, yet since users were offered a choice in their internet launch program, we have begun to realise that once again, Google have created something fantastic.

SEO news pages everywhere are filled with thoughts, opinions and reviews regarding Google Chrome and no wonder. The web browser has proven itself to be fast and reliable and has placed itself as a strong player in the browser market. What makes Google Chrome that little bit different is its automatic link to Google means that it is easy to flit between standard web sites and the well loved search engine, which is a plus point for a lot of users.

The indications that Google Chrome is becoming a contender in the lead for web browsers stems from the fact that it has developed at a steady pace. Quite often, new programs or tools storm into the market and rise to the top so quickly, that the only way to go from is down. Google Chrome however, has developed over the years and slowly made a path for itself in a strong and robust way. From a practical side, there are a lot of good features regarding Google Chrome, and from a personal angle, users see Google as a well known and trusted brand, meaning the likelihood of them trialling Chrome as a web browser is more common as they already have a relationship with Google as a search engine.

Google Chrome prides itself on being fast in terms of loading the internet and also loading web pages. It can cope with large and complicated applications easily and will load everything at a good speed. Whilst arguably most web browsers can accommodate complex pages nowadays, it is still a positive factor for Google that it can achieve this for its users. Other strong features are that it is simple to use and has automatic security measures in place to make web browsing safer. There is also the option to choose additional features and extensions such as shopping and photo task assistance as well as automated alerts.

Whilst Google Chrome is still not the leading web browser, it is certainly impressing and with it belonging to the company who gave us the number one search engine, it is clear to see why it is making headlines in the SEO news pages. Google is obviously aiming for big things and by the looks of things; it is heading in the right direction.

Today on the 7^th September 2010 google.uk and other EU google versions has an animated logo. The logo can be animated by hovering over the logo or moving the browser window around.

This is not the first but it is the first time there has been no official explanation from Google. Google usually has a reason for each logo but has not explained this one at all. Google has in the past has made the logo’s clickable which will link to a relevant search or page about what the logo is.

Today however is a mystery, this is the third animated logo we have seen from Google, previous animated logo’s have been the “Pacman logo” and the “Bucky ball” logo.

Speculation is that it is to celebrate Google’s birthday which has some confusion over whether it is today or was on the 4^th of September. However with it just being EU based makes us think otherwise.

It is interesting to see what our readers thing about this. Is it just them showing off htm5 or is it something completely different?