Covering Search Marketing, Local SEO, and Social Media

How Google Is Shaping User Search Behaviour

I believe I’m the first to observe this new addition in Google regional search, which effectively tries to suggest more local search queries for generic search terms.

Try it - Type in any generic service type such as lawyer, dentist, or florist into your regional Google search engine, and you’ll notice results such as the one above. In what seems to affirm to their ‘Do No Evil’, and ‘offer the most relevant results’ mantra, Google has started to suggest localized business queries for generic searches on regional google domains such Google.ca, .co.uk, and .com.au.

In essence, Google is shaping user search behaviour from searching generic phrases to more localized ones that offer better relevancy. After all, one of the main reasons most folks use regional google search rather than google.com is to get better results - No one wants to find a plumber in Waco, TX (due to heavy SEO) when they are really located in Vancouver, BC.

The caveat of course is that people are stubborn - they don’t change their habits easily, but this is a step in the right direction. Local search terms may have lower search volume but they generally have higher conversion rates as buyers are pre-empted by the very nature of the local search.

Implications on Organic and Paid Search

Shaping user behaviour and therefore traffic can have significant implications to the world of organic and paid search. If the trend continues, we will see an increase in traffic from local search terms, thereby increasing the bid costs on terms that were once cheap. It is impossible to say how long this might take for users to generally stop searching generic terms and start with localized search queries from their base (first) search.

In any case, this means that advertisers will have keep a very keen eye on the shift between generic phrase searches to local search, and adjust their campaigns accordingly. From an organic SEO standpoint, this means that search campaigns will require more components of local seo, in order to rank at the top. For example, some of my client’s rank very well for generic keywords (which is great), but do not rank within the top 5 for every single market they service, simply because a lesser number of hours has been focused on attaining city based rankings. In other cases, clients who have no e-tailer presence and are purely local will benefit from existing rankings that are relatively ‘cemented’ compared to other sites that are trying to optimize for local search queries.

In general, local seo will no longer be an add-on to an SEO campaign, but rather become an integral part of it, with local seo best practices such as:

• Building links or reviews from local citation sources.
• Having a separate landing page for each business location, or service area.
• A greater focus on local business directory link building (as a part of passive seo).
• Enhancing existing PPC campaigns with local maps targeting and business coupons.
• Since searches are being localized, optimization for the Google Maps one-box will become that much more important.

Why It Might Be Counter-Intuitive For Google Shareholders

Unless the industry jumps ship from generic keywords and switches over to local-only keywords overnight (ain’t gonna happen), revenue from Google Adwords will go down as local search terms generally cost far less to bid on than generic keywords.  As previously stated, user search behaviour takes a long time to change, and this should diminish any impact on overall revenues Adwords as a paid search platform, but in the long term one has to wonder if Google is shooting itself in the foot? Perhaps it hopes to make more revenue from sheer volume of keywords, but I do not forsee local keywords being more expensive than generic keywords any time soon.

Rolling it Out in Canada, the UK, and Australia

I’ve only tested the local query suggestion box in .ca, co.uk, and com.au but the box seems to be customized based on which regional search engine is used. For example, here’s the difference between Australia and Canada respectively, for the same search term:

Thoughts? Comments? Observations? Let me know if I’m completely off base, or if you agree with me on my thoughts regarding this change. Looking forward to discussions in the comments then.

A System Ready To Be Gamed for Cheap

Lot’s of speculation has been created around Google’s introduction of SearchWiki, which is  their mandate for users to create their own so called ‘private‘ google experience, effectively allowing customization of search results. Now, when you’re logged into your google account and turn on SearchWiki, you can have the awesome liberty of having results you found hidden on the 8th page show up higher due to your vote. Furthermore, your family, friends and the entire world will be able to see your preferences in voting up or down search results.

There is an inherent problem with all social platforms that rely on mass aggretation of popular opinion - the votes can be gamed. Call it back scratching, vote buying or whatever you will, it’s damn easy to get on top of any social network if you’ve got the right contacts, or have enough money to spend. This is a harsh reality, and while I believe that any successful social media user should contribute real value to their community, that does not change the fact that many top users influence stories regardless of real popularity to go ‘hot’.

When Search Gets Social

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I believe Google is incorporating the same features that Wikia offers to see if a social signal in aggregate can be significant enough to put less weight on the section of their algorithm with less weight. This is in line with any new social media site - they all want user engagement and activity, other wise the site would essentially be dead.

My predictions include a bevy of forum thread over at DigitalPoint Forums (Google this) that offer the following (and in true digitalpoint engrish):

• 100 Vote + Comment on SearchWiki - Improve Google Ranking in 10 Days (sic).
• All unique c-class ip and proxy located all over the world.
• Manual submission by dedicated team.
• Report provided at end of work in excel format.
• Giving away 5 free review copies - Please PM me…

With automated gmail account creation, and many a webmaster holding thousands of aged account, I do not see why such a service wouldn’t show up? From a usability standpoint, I like the simplicity of the SERP results. With so much modification from Firefox extensions as a result of being a savvy netizen, I really didn’t want another bunch of vote up/down buttons. As a marketer, I see this a something I will be keeping a very keen eye on. I for one, will not take part in SearchWiki, and if you’re thinking the same way I am, you won’t either.

Comment Spamming SEO’s is Just Plain Stupid

I think we can all agree that Online Reputation Management is important, both for big brands and for up and coming companies. While sifting through my spam comments (I check to see if there’s any legit ones caught by Askimet), I found this archaic comment spam from not, one but two different IP’s leading to the same destination url - in this case widecircles.com (you don’t deserve a link, but this post will rank for your name!).

Wide Circles is a ‘Social Media Marketing’ platform as per their website, but they clearly arent’ paying much attention to their link building efforts. Commenting on blogs is still enough to rank in some low competition niches, but the ease of commenting should be accompanied by some prior prudence. Something along the lines of:

1. Don’t comment where you can be called out for being overly promotional or spammy
2. Don’t be stupid enough to look for links on a competitors blog, or dropping your own links in.
3. Don’t be daft enough to think that spamming SEO’s of all people wont get you into ORM issues.
4. Make your comment relevant to the blog post you’re commenting on (Duh!…)

For all I know they may offer a great platform, but if they are outsourcing their SEO then they should probably work with a provider that knows what they are doing.

Conclusion

There are many times I’ve thought about putting together massive SEO programs that follow a checklist of tasks and handing it over to an offshore outsourcing agency. Stuff like the above is exactly what tells me not to take that decision every single day I think about scaling SEO in volume. It’s about time that folks who still think that the template : ‘hi, nice post, very informative’ <drop link> need to think twice before spamming. In the end, it’s not the (so called) SEO that suffers the most - it’s the client.

Wide Circles, if you’re outsourcing, take my  $0.02 and fire your SEO provider or agency.