Last Friday Google changed the rules. And when Google changes the rules – especially when it makes the kind of changes it made last Friday – it’s going to have an impact on your business.
Google launched Google Searchwiki for all it’s registered account users. As the name suggests, this service combines the normal search function of Google with a wiki style interface. (A wiki is a website that allows you to add, move or change content).
Now when you search on Google as a signed-in user, you can pick out your favourite results and promote them straight to the top or delete your least favourite altogether (only within your account). You can add results that you’d like to be there but aren’t (again, only for your own results), and you can add comments. However, the comments you add do become public so everybody can see them – a very significant move. Other users can also see how many times sites have been ‘promoted’ or deleted by other users. This is going to vastly change the way in which many users use Google. Do not underestimate its significance.
For more info on the changes, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Pl1H0dIXE
So what does this mean to you, your business and your internet marketing?
One thing’s for sure and that is that speculation will initially be rife. Already there is even speculation to whether it will last, change or develop further, let alone how it will affect us. However there are a few fundamental questions that we need answers to:
What will the affect be if we have more than one web address?
How will this affect different key-word performance?
How much manipulation of the system will there be?
What happens if you become the victim of malicious comments?
What value will Google place on the changes and will that be added into their algorithm for search?
Is this the end of relevant search, and the beginning of ‘those-with-the-most-fans-wins’ democratic search?
What will the spammers sell you to work round this?
How do you now value SEO?
Is PPC now stronger or weaker?
What can you do to influence positive comments?
Do you now have to work harder off-line to promote your website?
Will there be a backlash?
How will this affect your sales and marketing?
The answers to some of these questions may start to become apparent very quickly as small businesses and busy social networkers get stuck into the system as quickly and avidly as possible and start to play it.
The only thing I can tell you as a fact is this: Google itself is not a ‘fact’ of marketing; it is a continually evolving business. Those who rely heavily on SEO or PPC as their sole routes to markets may now be playing a very different game to the one they were playing on Thursday. And it changed without warning. And it may change again. This underscores two points:
1, Your business should always have many routes to market
2, You can never be complacent on the internet.
More on this as it develops.
Google launched Google Searchwiki for all it’s registered account users. As the name suggests, this service combines the normal search function of Google with a wiki style interface. (A wiki is a website that allows you to add, move or change content).
Now when you search on Google as a signed-in user, you can pick out your favourite results and promote them straight to the top or delete your least favourite altogether (only within your account). You can add results that you’d like to be there but aren’t (again, only for your own results), and you can add comments. However, the comments you add do become public so everybody can see them – a very significant move. Other users can also see how many times sites have been ‘promoted’ or deleted by other users. This is going to vastly change the way in which many users use Google. Do not underestimate its significance.
For more info on the changes, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Pl1H0dIXE
So what does this mean to you, your business and your internet marketing?
One thing’s for sure and that is that speculation will initially be rife. Already there is even speculation to whether it will last, change or develop further, let alone how it will affect us. However there are a few fundamental questions that we need answers to:
What will the affect be if we have more than one web address?
How will this affect different key-word performance?
How much manipulation of the system will there be?
What happens if you become the victim of malicious comments?
What value will Google place on the changes and will that be added into their algorithm for search?
Is this the end of relevant search, and the beginning of ‘those-with-the-most-fans-wins’ democratic search?
What will the spammers sell you to work round this?
How do you now value SEO?
Is PPC now stronger or weaker?
What can you do to influence positive comments?
Do you now have to work harder off-line to promote your website?
Will there be a backlash?
How will this affect your sales and marketing?
The answers to some of these questions may start to become apparent very quickly as small businesses and busy social networkers get stuck into the system as quickly and avidly as possible and start to play it.
The only thing I can tell you as a fact is this: Google itself is not a ‘fact’ of marketing; it is a continually evolving business. Those who rely heavily on SEO or PPC as their sole routes to markets may now be playing a very different game to the one they were playing on Thursday. And it changed without warning. And it may change again. This underscores two points:
1, Your business should always have many routes to market
2, You can never be complacent on the internet.
More on this as it develops.
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