Google real-time search launched in December, 2009, and the SEO industry was wild with excitement.  Then, the prominence of real-time results diminished, and the excitement fizzled out.  Does real-time search matter – and what should business owners do to address it?

Since Dec 10, 2009, Google has been displaying real-time results within its standard search results.  You can see examples of this by searching for popular terms such as “Miley Cyrus” or “George Clooney.”   Here’s an example of a real-time result displaying on the top page of results for “toyota recall” on 1/21/10:

In its first week or so, real-time search results were displaying for a wide range of search queries.  Since then, however, Google has significantly scaled back the prominence of real-time search results. While the real-time search results were flowing, we got a good idea of how it works.  Here’s what we think you should know to prepare your strategy for the inevitability of its wider return:

HOW IT WORKS

• Google displays recent posts from Twitter, Friendfeed, and similar sources, as well as breaking news and recently updated websites.  Currently Twitter is dominating these results.  Live Facebook updates are expected to join in the future.
• Real time results appear to be displayed for search queries that qualify as “real-time-worthy”, which is similar to the process Google uses in its determination of which queries should display News, Images, Video, Local, etc. results. This is probably influenced by the volume of Twitter content as well as volume of search queries.  As an example, real times results are not displaying this evening (1/25/2010) for “H1N1 vaccine” but they are displaying for “hope for haiti”  We believe this is because there are not enough tweets, search volume, or other signals to trigger real time results for “H1N1 vaccine.”
• We have only observed tweets displayed up to a maximum of about an hour.  If there are a larger number of tweets on a topic, then individual tweets are displayed for shorter amount of time.
• There is a very short (1 min) lag time between when a tweet is posted and when it is displayed on Google.
• Google has stated that it uses similar “signals of quality” for real-time content as it does for web search; however, there does not appear to be a high barrier for tweets to be included.  Twitter accounts with only a few followers are included in the results.
• An individual Twitter account is not listed multiple times for the same query (in other words, you can’t  keep automatically tweeting the same phrase over and over again to get listed).
• Links that are included in a tweet are expanded and clickable in Google’s real-time results.
• Hashtags in search queries may trigger real-time search results (for example, when we looked today, “detroit” does not trigger real-time results, but “#detroit” does).
• Google will favor the “primary” tweet over any retweeted or aggregated copies.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU

• If your target keywords include highly “buzz”-related terms, such as current news events, celebrity names, or other entertainment keywords, real-time search results will probably display for some of your target terms.  Incorporation of real-time search results may increase the visibility of tweets, news, and other online word-of-mouth about your business.
• We don’t think that increasing the volume of your own Twitter-stream activity will be a strong contributor to increased presence in real-time search results.   It may also turn off followers.   Instead, your Twitter strategy should focus primarily on encouraging others to tweet about you,  your business or your product.
• Although we do not think that optimizing or increasing your Twitter posts will have a major effect, we do recommend some finessing of your current Twitter activity:
  – Timing of tweets becomes more important, because a tweet that occurs at a time when nobody is searching will not be seen.
  – Because Google expands all links that are included in tweets, include links to your site in your tweets whenever appropriate.

THE LAST WORD

For now, real-time search is a small factor in the Google results mix, but be prepared for it to gain in prominence. Real-time search won’t be easy to game, and probably shouldn’t be gamed.  The best way to improve your site’s presence in real-time search is to improve the buzz and online word-of-mouth around your business or product.  And that’s just good online word-of-mouth strategy, isn’t it?

Readers, have you seen anything in real-time search that has really surprised you?  Do you ever click on those real-time listings?

Q: Does Google care if I update my site frequently? Will doing so improve my ranks?

A:  “Yes” to the first question, and “maybe” to the second.

At this moment, the SEOs of the world are still getting used to the new Google landscape of real-time results, as well as searching options that include “Past 24 hours” and “Latest.”

Google now can, and often does, notice and react to new or newly modified text on your site within hours of when you made the changes.

It makes a lot of sense that Google would favor freshness, as delivering fresh results is a big bragging point for Google these days. (And Google does have significantly fresher search results than slowpoke competitors Bing and Yahoo!.)

In our recent client work, we’ve experienced a repeated pattern: Optimize a page properly, rank better pretty darn quickly…in hours, not days or weeks as it used to be.

On the flip side, we’ve also noticed another pattern: The original ranking boost tends to be offset by a subsequent “correction” period, when ranks drop down. This drop is anywhere from a tiny slide to something more significant, but, at least in our experience, not back to baseline.

Why would Google first boost ranks for fresher pages and then kick them downward? It’s not necessarily to allow fresher content from competing sites to take over the top ranks. (That may be the case in high-chatter-level industries on the web, but it’s not the case in some of the sleepier industries in which we’ve seen this happen.) This phenomenon could be for a couple of reasons:

With the increased importance of real-time search, Google may be sacrificing quality assurance in favor of freshness. Google may have a “rank first, vet later” approach, and the downward correction may occur after Google takes the time to fully process the page relative to competing pages.

Just like a new text ad placed into rotation in AdWords, Google may be giving updated pages a little extra exposure, to get a chance to gain clicks and inlinks. In other words, Google may be temporarily increasing exposure to updated pages to quickly gauge their “performance.”  This puts additional pressure on you, the site owner, to publish useful, compelling, meaningful content that’s properly targeted to your audience.

What does this mean for your site?

• Consider optimizing your site or launching new content in phases, not all at once, to keep a “rolling inventory” of your pages in play in Google’s search results, and to send a signal to Google that your site is frequently updated.
• When you find that pages with fresh content have gained higher ranks, don’t be upset by a subsequent drop. (But DO be upset if you drop below your baseline!)
• Don’t modify a page randomly (Change “the” to “a” in the page title, for example) and expect rank improvements. Google may be a lot of things, but it isn’t dumb enough to reward you for that. Make real improvements or real updates, or expect poor results.

We’d love to hear from you about your experiences with fresh content. Have you experienced this up-then-down scenario before? Tell us about it in the comments!

As of December 4, 2009, Google’s search results will never be the same. Seriously, they’ll never be the same, even from one computer to another.

In our previous post, we discussed how Google personalized search will affect your business. Now, we look at how a business can influence personalized results, and whether we think that’s a good idea.

Should Businesses Try to Influence Google Personalized Search Results?

Some blackhat SEOs will say “of course, businesses should game the system any way they can.” Others might say that trying to influence personalized search results in any way is unethical (but those people probably work for Google – which, last time we checked, is neither a non-profit organization nor a branch of government). Clearly, the techniques described above could be abused; for example, an unscrupulous SEO company could trick its clients into thinking their ranks are getting better and better, or into thinking the SEO company’s ranks are higher than they really are.

But working with the system is not necessarily abuse. We always advocate 100% ethical SEO, and we advise the following: go ahead and be smart about personalized results, but never use any tactics that you wouldn’t want your potential clients or customers to find out about. Your potential customers are the last people you want to alienate – and they don’t want to be tricked or manipulated.

Influencing Google Personalized Search Results

Here are a few ways that a company could influence personalized results:

• Create a promotion with an unique or unusual name, and build a page for it on your site, for example, “Bring on the PicklePal Pickles!”. Wait for your page to indexed in Google and check to see that you’re ranking #1 for this unusual phrase. (Don’t forget to opt out of personalized search before you check!)  (As we’ve said in our book, it’s easy to get a #1 Google ranking for a unique phrase. Now there’s a good reason to do so.) Then promote the Google search results page via Twitter, for example, “Free Pickles this Tuesday! Click on our link here:http://[point to the Google page, not your website.]]”
• If you’re absolutely certain you have very high ranks for a particular phrase, you could include links to your Google results for this phrase – rather than directly to your site – in email campaigns.
• Run print ads with a callout to a Google search rather than your website. (“Hey kids, Google ‘PicklePal Pickles Forever!’ to get your pickle fix!”)  Just be sure your site stays at the #1 spot for the phrase! You may have seen something like this on billboards for the movie 2012, which suggested searching for the term “2012.”
• Run an AdWords campaign that includes a call to action telling users to perform a Google search that returns your business’s website. Keep in mind that Google has strict editorial guidelines and this tactic may require some trial and error on your part.
• Seed forums and blog comments with a search call to action where relevant and appropriate. For example, in a forum thread about finding discount pickles, a business can post a reply saying: “We are currently running a discount pickle promotion at www.mysite.com – you can Google ‘discount PicklePal coupon’ [link to the Google search result for this term] and click on the link to see the coupon.”

Caution: We haven’t tried these tactics yet – and we may not recommend them to our clients. We’ll keep you posted as we embark on this new SEO journey.

Q: Etsy users are all abuzz about this article: “Etsy is Lowering Your Google Search Rating by Messing with Your Meta Tags” Just wanted your expert opinion as to whether this is accurate.

A: In the article, an Etsy member complains vehemently about Etsy adding text at the front of the crafter’s HTML Title. So, for example, if the crafter’s title was: “Yellow Fuzzy Bumpy Hat” the Etsy title would read: “Handmade Accessories on Etsy – Yellow Fuzzy Bumpy Hat”.

Technically, it’s correct that Etsy’s additions to people’s titles might be messing with ranks. We always keep our HTML titles at 66 characters or fewer because that’s how Google truncates the first line of the search listing. In addition, we have reason to think that the first part of the title is the most important. That is, we think it is weighted more heavily by Google and has a bigger influence on ranks.

HOWEVER, let’s look at the big picture: Etsy.com is a very high-authority site on the web. It has over 600,000 links pointing to it from other sites, which is very impressive and difficult to get. It has a Google PageRank value of 7 out of 10, which is, again, very impressive and difficult to get. In addition, Etsy appears to be keyword-optimizing its page titles in a strategic manner, so it’s adding good keyword-optimized text like “Handmade clothing on Etsy” and “Vintage on Etsy.” It’s not like they’re adding irrelevant text like “cheap mortgages die crafters die” – they’re trying to be found for what their crafters are selling!

Etsy is an internet heavyweight and, if you want your product to benefit from Etsy’s visiblity and traffic, then co-branding seems like a reasonable tradeoff to us. In fact, co-branding a search listing as “Etsy” is likely to increase click-throughs in the search engine because the name lends a level of familliarity and trust. Displaying products on the Etsy.com domain is giving the average crafter a shot at good rankings that they wouldn’t likely get otherwise.

And, one last point: It’s Etsy’s site, and Etsy has every right to brand its site the way it wants to.

Our suggestion to crafters: Check the HTML titles that Etsy is generating for your products, and tighten up your product titles with the foreknowledge that you are losing some characters to work with.

Googling ourselves. We’ve all done it – and privacy experts agree that it should be done on a regular basis. But if the results that come up on Google when you search for your own name are less-than-flattering, you may be scrambling for a solution.

These days, potential employers (and mothers-in-law) are checking Google results for your name rather than just reading your resume. Whether it’s outdated contact info, unprofessional forum postings from 10 years ago, or a photo of you in a wet g-string contest (and you’re aguy!) you may be in need of a personal Google make-over.  Here are a few tips to improve your personal presence on this important search engine:

• Set up a Google Profile. As of April 2009, Google will sometimes display your profile picture and link in the search results for your name. Although the listing is currently at the bottom of the first page of search results (roughly the equivalent of listing #10), it’s accompanied by a thumbnail photo, which goes a long, long way toward getting people to notice it! Even better, you have 100% control over your profile contents – how much does that rock? It’s very easy to set up a Google Profile. Just go to http://www.google.com/profiles and click on the big “create a profile” link.
• See something bad? Ask the owner of the page to update or remove it. Almost anything can be removed from a website – if the site owner is accessible and agreeable.  After all, most website owners want updated information just as badly as you do. If you can find contact information for the website that bears outdated or improper information about you, obtaining an update or removal may be as simple as asking for it.  Be sure that you are very specific about the page or pages that contain the problem, and clear about why you want it changed.   If removal is not an option, you might request that the site owner add text such as “This information was last updated March 1996.  ZappyCo cannot vouch for the current status of this information” or “This page is no longer maintained.”
• Crowd out the results. It’s likely that you won’t find anyone who’s willing or able to change the offending content for you. Items such as archived forums, news and media content, and postings by people that simply hate your guts are destined to stay out there indefinitely.  Your best bet will be to try to outrank them on the search engines. Strategies for outranking your competitors can – and do – fill many websites and books.  Some quick and easy ways to start are:
• Start posting comments in blogs or forums using your full name.  Choose big, popular forums that are likely to have a good presence, and make sure that the pages are accessible without a login.  (And, before you get any big ideas, make sure they’re relevant comments, or else when you Google yourself you’ll be embarrassed by your own spam messages.)
• If you have a business or personal website, you can make your name one of your top target keywords and proceed with an SEO plan like the one described in our book, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day.
• If you have the opportunity to build your own web page within the website of your school, employer, or any organization of which you are a member (many schools offer this to their students and staff), be sure to do so. A nicely written bio page would be a welcome result on a Google search for your name!
• If you don’t have a website or bio page, build one on any of the zillions of free website services out there (you can experiment with Google’s own here: [Google Link]) and make a page that’s all about you! (Also see the “pay your way to the top” bullet below – Naymz offers a free profile page.)
• Get active on Linkedin or another business networking site.
• Use your middle name. Often, problems with Googling yourself arise because there are other people sharing the same first and last name.  For example, there are two authors on Amazon.com named Jennifer Grappone! If you are plagued by this type of problem, you might wish to incorporate your middle name into business correspondence, add it to your personal signature on emails, use it in forum and blog postings, and be sure that it is included on any web content about you.  In the long run, this will help to distinguish you from all of those online doppelgangers.
• …or no name at all. Some content stays on the internet for a surprisingly long time. Use your full name as described in the previous bullet when you’re making professional postings, but consider using a “pen name” for dating profiles or other material that you may not want to show up in 10 years when a potential employer is Googling you. And go anonymous for some of those those rants that you can’t resist!
• If all else fails, consider paying your way to the top. There’s even a company designed specifically to help you with this: Naymz, at https://www.naymz.com. (special thanks to Andy Beal for this suggestion from his blog). The basic service allows you to create a free personal profile page on their domain. The premium service will sponsor ads listing your profile page in Google, MSN, and Yahoo! (Be warned, as reader Darin Newberry points out: “Naymz web site is for the personal use of individual members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors.”)

Follow these steps to improve your Google self-esteem.  It’s a lot easer than changing your name!

As any SEO (search engine optimization) specialist will tell you, it’s never too early to think about the eventual search engine presence of your business. Even such a basic choice as the name of your business should be considered from an SEO mindset.

Your company name will very often be the text used in linking to your website. It’s likely to be the single term for which you have the best chance of gaining a top rank on search engines.  Conversely, it’s a term for which you are going to really, really want that #1 rank, so you shouldn’t make it too hard on yourself.  Here are a few Do’s and Don’ts for choosing a search-friendly company name:

• DO include keywords in your business name if possible.  Suppose your name is Joe Figudacamp and you are starting a company that sells restaurant fixtures in the Salt Lake City area. You could call your business “Figudacamp Associates” or you could call it “Figudacamp Fixtures.” See how the second name includes a keyword, and is also a better description of the company? Continuing along this path, you might consider naming your company “Salt Lake City Restaurant Fixtures,” but oh, it’s so long and boring. Here’s where the fun brainstorming comes in. Can you incorporate keywords while still choosing a memorable company name that represents you nicely?
• DON’T use a word that is also a common word in the English language, especially if it’s unrelated to your business focus.  Let’s say you’re a private investigator. Do you know how hard it’s going to be to rank #1 if the name of your business is “Sneakers”?  This advice applies to product names too.
• DO watch out for inadvertant synonyms, especially those that could have an adult tone.  Trying to do well on search engines for the private investigator’s company called “Sneakers” would be hard enough, let’s not even talk about “Dicks”!
• DON’T choose a phrase that is going to be highly competitive, unless you’re prepared for an uphill battle to that #1 spot.  In our book, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour A Day, we describe the process of determining how competitive a term is. For a quick read on the level of competition, do an “allintitle” search on Google for the phrase and see how many results come up (see Handy Search Shortcuts for help with this and other special searches).
• Likewise, DO think twice before using a personal name for the business. If your business is going to be tightly aligned with one person (interior designers or other consultants come to mind), and you have a unique, easy-to-remember, and easy-to-spell name, this might be a good choice.  If your name is common and you choose it as your business name, be sure to include differentiating terms: “John Miller Green Energy” will work better in the search arena than “John Miller Design.”
• DO include your location if you cater to a local market. Of course, DON’T limit yourself by including a location in your company name if you hope to expand in the future.
• DON’T go with a three letter acronym.  It may work for UPS and the IRS, but it’s a tough row to hoe for the average business.
• DO make sure the business name is unique, or close to it.  If there are other businesses with the same name but in different industries, consider adding a clarifying word to your name: not just “Pinkies” but “Pinkies Books.”
• DON’T go changin’.  If you already have an established business name, it’s generally not a good idea to change it based on SEO reasoning alone.

We’re no fools, we know that SEO is only one small factor in choosing a business name.  But let SEO play a role in the decision before anything is set in stone, and it just might pay you back with a successful search presence for your business!

Sometimes, you just want to hide from the world. But hiding is not always so easy for a web page! Here’s how to request removal from search engines.

In Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day, we explained the basics of using a robots.txt file to control which pages on your website are indexed in the major search engines. Here are page removal instructions directly from the search engines themselves:

Google

The quickest and best way to get a page removed from Google is to sign up for Webmaster tools and use the URL Removal tool.

• Read the Google FAQ about the URL Removal Tool
• Read the Google FAQ about removals in general
• Go to Google’s automatic URL removal page. (You may need to hit refresh after the page loads.)

Yahoo!

• Yahoo!’s instructions regarding URL removal.

Ask

• Ask does not currently include a feature allowing webmasters to request page removal. However, you can ask them not to crawl your site using the robots.txt file or a robots meta tag.
• Read Ask’s Webmaster FAQ

Bing

• Read Bing’s instructions for website removal