Once again without too much of a fanfare Google announced another significant change that will have a serious impact upon free SEO ranking as time roles out. Announcement made on Dec 7th. The new way of representing search results is to place up to date news content above the free results and just below the paid results.
For example I did a search for Julius Malema and the number 1 result was a news post as follows:
News results for Julius Malema…
Malema’s power diminishes? – 13 hours ago
Justice Malala: The booing of Julius Malema by the SA Communist Party and the … However, the truth is that the political death of Julius Malema has been …
Times LIVE – 230 related articles »
Nationalisation not fatal: Malema? – Times LIVE – 20 related articles »
We are not afraid of the IFP: Malema? – Independent Online – 10 related articles »
Notice how fresh the result was (13 hours ago)
I know it is not fashionable to point out that SEO is going to become more and more difficult but here is yet another example of how the optimised results (especially those optimised to get rankings without due consideration to great and outstanding content… ie vast majority of SEO’d sites)
I strongly suggest you read Google’s announcement on this important change
Here’s what was said on Webpro News…
Will Real-Time Search Results Drive PPC?
“Much like with Google‘s recently launched (for everyone) personalized search results, or any other universal search results for that matter, the addition of real-time results is just one more element that can add to the challenge of getting organic results to show up high on the page. As iEntry CEO and WebProNews Publisher Rich Ord noted when talking about personalized search, this could give marketers more cause to focus on PPC, where they have more control over their campaign. This notion seems to be becoming a more common theme.”
“I certainly think this will have a more profound impact on results sitting below the Twitter feed and those above,” says Peter Young of Holistic Search, as quoted by MediaPost. “The scramble for the top positions will become fiercer. That may mean more people invest in PPC to gain more control of their presence.”
Not yet completed the survey?
Here’s that bit of a bribe again to encourage you to complete the simple survey.
The Bribe is…
Every website with a need to achieve an outcome must measure the conversion rate to the outcome. Conversion rate is defined as Number of Conversions divided by Number of Times the offer or web page was seen. In the case of a PPC campaign conversion rate is number of conversions divided by the number of clicks. A conversion can be anything you like… the 2 most common are sales and web form (lead) completion.
I am often asked 3 questions about running an Adwords PPC campaign:
- What is a good conversion rate?
- What is amount I can spend on a click?
- What should my daily budget be?
There are no simple answers to these questions and all are interrelated anyway. BUT and this is important…
Click here to take short survey… thank you for your time
Tony Roocroft
Seoza.com
Tel +27114540105 or mailto:pondprof@gmail.com
Another gem from SEO guru Tony Roocroft, a mentor and friend.
