Fun With Google Search ResultsI had a little bit of fun with Google, and decided to share it. Since Google has, arguably, the best search results (most relevant) I decided to perform a search for “search engine” thinking Google would then provide me with the best search engine for me to use going forward. Here’s what I got (the extra “bits” are from the Compete toolbar):
Of all the search engines, Google apparently feels the top three are Alta Vista, Dogpile and Yahoo, in that order, with a Wikipedia page thrown in there for some education. In fact, google.com doesn’t appear on the first page (google.co.uk did appear on the second page, I’m searching from the states). So then I did a search for “google”…on Google.
Obviously these are relevant results, but I think Google can do better If (stress “if”) there’s one search term Google should be allowed to artificially manipulate, I’d say it’s this one. If Google wanted to list out it’s top ten products/destinations I don’t think the Google directory (scraped ODP) would fit anywhere in that (or even Google Video after their acquisition of YouTube). Certainly Adwords should be listed. Speaking of Adwords, the sponsored listings for “google”:
More than the organic results, these can really be manipulated without a backlash. The only “paid” result is iGoogle? What about Website Optimizer? Adwords? The Google toolbar? Checkout? Base or Apps? Come on Google! Cover all your bases! It’s not like it’ll cost you anything. This was all for fun. Only Google knows the amount and quality of traffic from “google” as a search term:
…though it has an “Average” search volume. Tags: google In-House SEO On A BudgetA strategy to handle in-house SEO with a $500 a month budget. Content Utilize your company’s experts to create useful and informative articles relating to your industry, and post them to a blog on your site. For ideas on articles, think “How To”, “History Of”,”Best Of”, etc. Total cost $0 (the beauty of taking advantage of the resources around you). Use an open-source blog solution like Wordpress so you don’t have to hire a “web-guy”. Tools Again using the people who know your industry the best (those that work with you), plan and build some tools that visitors to your site would find useful. Coding the tools may take an investment since your business may not have in-house programmers, so we’ll set aside $100/month for the coding. Go after local students who may be able to do the work for a reasonable price. Yes, you’ll have to save this money for a few months before you have enough for the tool. Link Building The above two items will help with natural link building and baiting. From there, get a couple of quality directory links. Setting aside $50/month will get you a Yahoo! directory listing and a BOTW.org listing with a little left over. If you serve other businesses, save extra for a Business.com link. Consulting Consulting? Yes, you will have questions and hit stumbling blocks so you need to set aside funds for a little consulting. Of course with this budget it may seem impossible, but it isn’t. Pony-up for a premium/training account at SEOBook.com. There you’ll have access to forums where you can ask Aaron Wall about your obstacles, issues, or where to go next if everything’s running smoothly. Cost $100/month. Website Coding It’s going to be difficult affording the time it’ll take to have someone go through and make necessary adjustments to your site’s code (titles, headings, general maintenance) if you don’t have an in-house webmaster. You’ll have to do a few pages at a time through your website provider (most important pages first) after you’ve developed your keyword strategy. Hopefully you can do this yourself, otherwise $100/month and patience. SEO Tools You need help finding potential keyphrases, and tracking your progress. We’ll take advantage of the free ones first. There’s Wordtracker’s free version and Google Adwords to check for popularity, and related phrases. We’ll use $50/month for a Pro Account at SEOmoz.org. With that we can do some tracking of competitor’s backlinks (along with our own), find other potential link sources and check rankings. We can also utilize their new SEO Analytics (in beta) which will let us know when there’s a mention of our domain name or brand name across the web, new links and search engine saturation, all updated every three days. Off-Site Marketing Spend some time answering industry related questions on forums and places like Yahoo! Answers. Create profiles where your market gathers, like MySpace and Facebook. Start some off-site blogs at free providers like Blogger and Wordpress.com $0/month. Costs your time though. This also helps with reputation management. Creative I’m going leave $100/month in the bank for creative endeavors. Use it for occasional contests (Win an iPhone!) that people like linking to and to spread goodwill, or pay a graphic artist for a cool t-shirt design to sell. In today’s Internet, the more you give, the more you get. You don’t have to limit the contests to your site. Have a contest on your MySpace profile and give away something MySpace related…be creative. Ok folks. There it is. It won’t work for all industries, and very competitive ones will obviously need a significantly larger budget. What would you do/change/rip to pieces? Tags: budget, in-house, SEO |
