It showed up on the first page because Google sometimes customizes your search results based on your past search activity. This usually includes searches you’ve previously done and the results you’ve clicked on. Well, of course since I was constantly doing searches to see where I fit in from the search results and always visiting my own site, it was listed on the first page.

What all of this means is if you have previously visited a website, there is a possibility that your browser has been stamped with a 180 day cookie that will highlight any related keywords pertaining to that site.

The end result is the site you visited may appear higher in the search results the next time you look for something related. While this may not be a problem for some, seeing the search engine result pages “how they are” and not “how they are skewed from personalized search” is a preference.

So how do you see what your “real” results are?

Turn off search history personalization

Google does have an official way to disable the feature (I am listing it first because it’s official, NOT because it’s the easiest way to do it).

Disable Google Personalization: One-Time (Browser Independent)

This is the one I use most often as I like the personalization feature by Google and don’t want to turn it off completely. So in this case, what you need to do is manually modify the search query URL path. To do so,  just add this parameter to the end of the search query in the address bar:

&pws=0

The “&pws=0″ parameter removes the search personalization. Voila! Now you can see where your site really stands with a certain search/keyword.

Your turn…

Do you know of another method that wasn’t covered here? Please share your feedback in the comments section below.

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What is Google Social Search?

It simply means that your search results will display related entries from your friends and peers in your social networks –  if you are logged in with your Google account that is.

Here’s a brief look into what it looks like.

But guess what? Facebook, one of the world’s largest social networks, was not included. Yes, Google and Facebook are still not playing well together and are warring over the issue.

Can I Claim That Google is Killing SEO?

Well, if you really think about it, if more search results are going to be from social networks and integrated directly into the organic listings, then less time, money, and energy is needed to optimize for search engines.

So keyword stuffing, all the expensive search engine optimization techniques, and any other tactics, especially black hat (“illegal techniques that can get you banned”) will start to be less important as they are being portrayed right now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still useful but I don’t think it will be for long! However, SEO’ers will really need to get on the ball and start changing their tactics!

Note: This is the perfect time to read “Marketing Your Website Without Search Engines” so you can see why being more social is advantageous for you and your brand.

What Does This Really Mean Overall?

In a recent interview discussing keys to building a successful blog, I shared that people do business with people - not with your website, not with your blog, not with your traditional methods of push marketing, but with YOU! So you need to start leveraging social media and using it more effectively. If I had to pick between SEO (search engine optimization) and SMO (social media optimization), SMO wins in my book hands down. Besides, I’d rather be social, which is a proactive, engaging experience and it has never been more important than it is today.

Your turn…

What do you think about this feature from a Google user and/or from a business owner’s perspective? What do you think of the future of SEO? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave your 2 cents!

Article Resources

• Here’s the official update notice from Google’s blog.
• And here’s a cute little video Google created about social search.

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Frankly, I’m tired of all the “experts” and self-proclaimed SEO gurus that keep popping up from the wood works everyday telling us that SEO is the bee’s knees! (I love that phrase by the way!) LOL

Now before you start to pull your hand waaaaaaaay back to get ready to hit me with your hardest slap and knock me back into reality, hear me out.

Who would you rather read your site – search engines or human beings?

Who are you attracting and doing business with  – search engines or human beings?

You might say, “Well, Kesha, we need search engines to get human beings to our websites.”

“Somewhat true, old buddy old chap, but not entirely,” I respond.

You’d think as a web designer, I’d be on the other side of the fence. However, I’ve come to realize that if we write for humans first, with great emotional, relevant, and timely content, the more our content appeals to readers; hence, the more our content is shared; hence, the greater value search engines will place on our content; and ultimately, more human beings will find it through the search engines. And the cycle begins again…instead of starting the other way around (with search engines first)…

So if there are no search engines, what do I do?

Which brings me to how I think marketing a website without search engines is done – socially! We still have to network, whether it’s online or in person. We still need to connect and build relationships with others. You know, how we used to do it

No, I’m not saying to ditch SEO practices because I know that search engine traffic is invaluable. I’ve even seen reports that say nothing beats search engine traffic, but if we are not careful, we may start to forget that the goal of our website is to obtain readers, visitors, and prospective clients so they can act on our product and service offerings or whatever else you want them to do on your site (otherwise, what’s the purpose of your business website or blog?).

I think the guys at dosh dosh said it best (the website is no longer up so link doesn’t work):

“Without search engines, people will do what they’ve been doing for thousands of years. They rely on each other. They rely on the community, on the collection of publications known within their geographic location or industry. They rely on word of mouth. And they also rely on getting information from common resources like a public square, library, forum or marketplace.”

Don’t be totally dependent on search engines!

Becoming totally dependent on the search engines to send traffic to you is not only not advantageous; it is dangerous!  You must be sure to include other resources such as networking, social media marketing, press releases, article writing and much more.

Your customers should be coming from various outlets, not just the search engines.

Your turn…

Pretend search engines don’t exist.

• What if Google decides it doesn’t like your site anymore?
• How would you grow your website traffic and market yourself without the search engines then?

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Bad Move 1: Build the site using a frameset. (Didn’t this go out in the early 2000s anyway : – ) )

Framesets may save designers time but are bad news for search engines. They can struggle to follow links into the web site or read text on the page unless you use a no frames tag effectively. In addition to this, if an engine does keep a cache of a site with frames it will often pick up the individual frames/pages and not the complete frameset.

The downside of this is that you may lose your navigation for many of your pages, which is likely to turn visitors off. Whilst one or two partial fixes to framesets are out there, it’s still no wonder that many web site promoters still cry “Please No Frames”. For more information on why framesets can cause problems visit http://www.html-faq.com/htmlframes/

Bad Move 2: Build the site purely in flash.

Flash intros and websites can be visually stunning, but at the same time they can be rather limiting when it comes to search engines. If your main site is all one flash site it will typically play in just one html page. Some search engines simply can’t read Flash and so your website to them is just one relatively empty HTML page.

If your competitors website has 15 or 20 pages in HTML talking about their goods and services, then they will have a big advantage on you. If you must have a Flash site for graphical reasons then it would be wise to budget for a separate HTML web site to have along side the Flash so your site content can be read and indexed by search engines.

Bad Move 3: Decide that graphics are more important than words

Be careful. As great as some images can be, try not to let designers convince you that you don’t need copy on your web site or that a few lines is enough. Only very occasionally is there ever an excuse to fill your website with graphics at the expense of text. If the graphics look great, then match them with great copy. Sales copy is important to tell your audience why your goods and services are important.

Search engines also like to index plenty of useful copy too. 250-500 words is a sensible starting guide for most pages or ½ of the amount you would place in a brochure. Text copy is important and will always be so make sure website has some!

Bad Move 4: Leaving out the Meta tags

This is a bad move as Meta Tags are important to search engines. Clear and concise title tags should be written for every page reflecting what it contains. Avoid writing things like ‘Home’ or ‘welcome’ as it’s fairly meaningless. If your page is selling blue widgets then get ‘blue widgets’ in the title and keep the title to 10 words or less.

In addition to this, create a well-written objective Meta description for each page and list your Meta Keywords. These keywords should also reflect the content on your web page. Leaving these 3 things out, or doing them badly, can be disastrous.

The impact of Meta tags on rankings may vary from engine to engine, but without them your pages could be ignored. Most HTML editors allow you to easily insert Meta Tags into your web page and it only takes a few moments to add to a page. So there are no excuses. Make sure you have good Title tags, Meta Description and Meta Keyword tags on your pages today! Update: With most blogging platforms like WordPress, it’s even way easier to do!

Bad Move 5: Use lots of JavaScript

Search engines have a few problems understanding JavaScript in pages. At the best of time they struggle with it, at worst they may even ignore it. On its own, it can be an unreliable way to make website navigation. If you must use JavaScript for your navigation make sure you have some alternative ways to get to pages by using HTML text links at the bottom of the page. If you have a large amount of JavaScript think about linking to it as a separate JavaScript file.

Bad Move 6: Don’t have sites linking to yours

Unless you want your website hidden from the outside world you want to be found right? Well, search engines ideally find a new website by following a link from another site. This happens when people link to you and this kind of underpins the Internet. By having sites link to you, search engine crawlers will find your web site and you never need to submit your website to the likes of Google, though it is a good idea to do so especially with new websites.

It is still the case that websites that rank highly on Google and Yahoo for relatively competitive key phrases often have scores if not hundreds of websites linking to them. Google helps to explain the importance of linking. So “think links” and be sure to get your site listed in some quality web directories as part of the process.

Bad Move 7: Focus on submitting your website to thousands of search engines and forget the ones that matter

Now and then you will see some companies attempting to promote this idea – often by using Bad Move 8! It is true that there are thousands of search engines but the highest volume of traffic comes from less than 10 major search engines.

The logic of “If I get one hit a day off each of the 1000 mini search engines I’ll get a 1000 visitors a day” unfortunately in practice does not ring true. It is a fact that a huge volume of search engine traffic comes from a small handful of search engine: most notably the Google, Yahoo and MSN (now Bing).

Bad Move 8: Using Unsolicited/Spam email

This may seem obvious that this is not the best way to promote your business but is always worth stating. If you’re in any doubt, simply ask yourself: “Do I like getting Spam emails?” It’s common sense to avoid using techniques that annoy people or damage your brand.

Using unsolicited email campaigns could result in complaints and at worst your ISP could ban you. If you want a successful email campaign, it is advisable to target genuine opted-in newsletter subscribers and to always offer an opt-out button in every email.

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If you blog and write posts (about anything; it doesn’t matter the topic!) and want to make sure you optimize each post to the appropriate keywords, then look no further than the SEO Blogger plugin for Firefox.

SEO Blogger is a free Firefox plugin that gives bloggers a mini version of the Wordtracker keyword research tool in their editing window.

It saves you a lot of time, allows you to stay focused on your current task (writing that next great article), and compares keywords instantly – all without leaving the Firefox window!

The image below shows my screen as I’m writing this article and using SEO Blogger in the same browser window:

The tool sits alongside whatever blog publishing software you’re using so you can do keyword research and optimize your posts as you write. Then, simply hit “Publish” – and you’re done!

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