Strategizing for Google in 2010

Written by Jonathan Becker
on Thursday, January 28th, 2010

It’s no secret that over the last several months the team at Google has been busy developing, testing, and implementing, the next-generation of the company’s search algorithm. As a matter of fact, Google made over 540 search-quality improvements in 2009; that’s an average 1.5 changes each day! Most media attention given to these developments covered the set of improvements that Google referred to as its caffeine update. These changes were implemented in order to further Google’s continuing goal of broadening index size, improving index speed, search accuracy, and the overall comprehensives of its search results. For individual users, these changes have led to search results that now contain a more relevant array of data from across the web. As Google changes the way it approaches weighing and displaying search results, search marketers will have to incorporate some new ideas into the way they approach search marketing in 2010.

Does your site have the ability to generate the kind of updates found in real-time search?

In December 2009 Google revealed that it was including a brand new way of displaying up-to-the-moment changes within its search results. This new feature, know as real-time search, makes use of 12 new search technologies that enable Google to monitor billions of web pages daily, track the hundreds of millions of changes that are being made to them, and display real-time changes within search engine result pages (SERPs). Certain SERPs now display a scrolling list of relevant search results that may have been posted on the web only moments before you made your search query.

Here’s an example for the search phrase, “Haiti earthquake”:

Initial real-time search results.

The same results only moments later. Notice that they're different?

Optimizing for this new feature requires an understanding of the kinds of content displayed in it. Google itself has noted that real-time search puts a heavy emphasis on social media services like Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook, MySpace, Jaiku, and Identi.ca. It’s probably ok to assume that content from Google News is included in real-time search results as well (here’s a Google News ranking guide btw). Basic level search optimization for sites like Twitter is relatively straightforward. Write unique content that your audience finds useful, and structure it so that search engines can easily identify what it’s all about. Utilize the “#” tag in front of keywords within your tweets in order to tell users and search engines what the content of your post is all about. It’s similar to the idea of how meta keyword tags used to work with HTML.

Forum Posts Surfacing in Search Results

2009 also saw the deployment of a new Google feature that enables the surfacing of a website’s forum posts within result snippets. Providing users with the ability to view forum posts at a SERP level enables users to easily identify what other individuals have said about the topics they are googling. This feature is intended to provide users with a “deeper view” into the relevant content available on websites.

Here’s an example for the search “getting from jfk to manhattan”:

See the SERP results surfacing directly from the forum?

User Generated Content

As Google begins to give up valuable SERP real estate to features like real-time search and forum post snippets, it is becoming clear that the search engine is beginning to put a higher emphasis on user-generated content. Old static brochure-type websites are out; blogs, news feeds, forums, and social media are in. Remaining competitive in 2010 will have everything to do with incorporating user-generated content into your Internet marketing strategy, and determining the best way to optimize for it.

Check out our search engine optimization page to learn more about 6S Marketing’s search engine optimization services.

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Posted in: Blog on January 28th by Jonathan Becker

7 Comments

Comment by Kemp Edmonds — January 29, 2010 @ 12:57 pm

A website without a blog offering insights and value to audience(s) on a consistent basis will fall out of favour with the coming real time search changes. Being part of the social spheres is now a must for companies hoping to gain from the new direction of the net.

The most important thing for businesses to take from this is that unique valuable content designed specifically for your audience(s) are what will work on Twitter and in Google.

Wondering what your audience(s) consider unique, valuable content? Consider checking out LinkedIn Questions and Answers to see what your audience wants to know about.

Some people are even going as far as to say that Facebook will pass Google for pageviews. This is possible, although unlikely. Remember to post your content to different places for different audiences. We don’t know how many people are using Facebook search just yet, but if your Blog posts aren’t being posted as PUBLIC notes on Facebook you are losing out on possible new audiences.

Great article Jon, I hope to hear more from you on the ins and outs of Google going forward.
Comment by BBB — February 3, 2010 @ 9:38 am

Very insightful.

A great read for business’s as it shows many of them should be changing the way they structure their SEO goals. Especially considering its emphasis on including social media into real time search results.
Comment by Biance Le Roux — February 3, 2010 @ 3:53 pm

For a SEO simpleton such as myself, I gotta say that was an awesome load of information. And from a web developer stand-point, this blog post would be something I’d forward to a client so that they’d fully appreciate the importance of using web 2.0 / social media! How much they’d advance your site in today’s competitive web-space.

Real helpful post Jon, I’ll probably have to monitor all your blog posts from now on so that my new site would be somewhat “find-able” on Google in comparison to the other several hundred web companies in Vancouver!
Comment by Gav — February 5, 2010 @ 1:24 pm

Woo! Excellent! I have tried to find such kind of info for a period of time, I got it here! It is really helpful, especially for those who want to pursuing new SEO trends on GOOGLE in 2010. Sure, I will keep track on this blog posts about SEO and take ‘track, learn, improve’ action plan on it .Go! Jon, I can’t wait to see your next post!
Comment by Jonathan Becker — February 5, 2010 @ 4:54 pm

Thanks guys. Great to see that you enjoyed the post.

Kemp, make sure to take a look at the emphasis on search in Facebook’s new interface. Looks like they’re going to take on Google in this area. I think it’ll have some interesting implications for personalized search ..

~

Make sure to follow @6s_marketing and @jzbecker for the latest on SEO, Social Media, and Internet Marketing.
Comment by Chrissy — February 8, 2010 @ 7:45 pm

Whoo, very well written information Jon. BRAV-O-.
Pingback by Using Twitter to Rank in Google Real Time Search | 6S Marketing — March 1, 2010 @ 1:57 pm

[...] Using the “#” within a tweet is a strong indication of the overall subject of your content to both search engines and users. It’s an excellent way of optimizing Twitter updates for a specific keyword or phrase. (I talk about this in a bit more detail in my last blog post, Strategizing for Google in 2010.) [...]