A GlimPSe into the future? GPS and Google

I’ve had a bit more time to digest many of the presentations from the Sydney Search Marketing Expo back in April.

Apart from the usual SEO topics, the major forward looking themes were to do with local search (i.e. Maps), mobile search, social media optimisation and the optimisation of all types of content, not just text.

The folks from Google seemed to offer the biggest clues as to where they’re heading.

Obviously, Google’s Universal Search where images, news stories, video and maps etc can be blended into the Google results pages featured highly.

But I felt there was one important topic which barely got a mention.

It made me suspicious, and when I get suspicious, I start thinking.

Where was GPS in all of this? One of the hottest consumer goods of 2007, GPS sales have exploded with personal hand held and in-car devices almost everywhere.

Every Taxi I’ve sat in recently (thankfully) has a GPS unit stuck to the windscreen. As I sat in the taxi on my way to the Search Marketing Expo I watched the GPS map constantly updating the maps on screen as we travelled along. It was quite mesmerizing.

The next day Marissa Mayer from Google spoke at length about how Google was rolling out streetview in Australia.

Here’s an example from downtown Chicago:

If you haven’t tried Google streetview yet, give it a whirl because it’s quite a fun way to whizz around the streets of a city you’ve never been to before.

So when you combine streetview and local search, what do you get?

At this stage, you get this…

Pretty cool huh!

You get to see local businesses, what they look like and where they are.

But how does all this tie into GPS?

If you examine Google’s previous business strategies (such as investing in Youtube), you’ll notice that there is nearly always a financial return at the end. With Youtube, Google were WAY ahead of the game. They bought it in 2005, but it took 2 years for Google to actually use the videos as part of it Universal results.

Streetview was launched in May last year, and I imagine it’s a big financial investment having cars with 360 degree cameras driving up and down nearly every street of each city.

Look, this is a bit of a long shot but I think Google will probably try and license Streetview to GPS manufacturers. It will allow people to switch between a map view and streetview. If streetview is selected, it will allow Google to highlight local businesses as you’re driving along (in your taxi for example).

You might hear an ad in your cab which say’s something like, “Coming up on your right is Miller’s Pub and Restaurant. Mention this Ad for 20% off your next meal”. The taxi company takes a cut and Google takes a cut from the ad revenue. The local business has an opportunity to stand out in a crowded market place and it can measure (with reasonable accuracy) its conversion rate based on people who mention the Ad.

It’s all there, Google just need to put the whole thing together… If they haven’t already.

My advice?

Move your business to the busiest road to and from the Airport and come up with a compelling offer!

Google Local Universal Search gets serious! Really serious.

Ok, today Google's rolled out a big change to its local results. If your a local business & you're not registered for local search - you better get a move on!

Here's what's happened...

Yesterday, Google local map results looked a lot like this:



Today they're looking like this:



Not only that, in the 'old days' the top three results next to the map made up the top 10. Now Google's crammed 20 results onto the search results page!

Now we are seeing all sorts of strange results showing up too...



Then, as we started to wonder just how weird it could get, someone in our office yelled out "try 'brothels!'" as a joke. Sadly, I did and here's the result (I don't think the baptist church will be very happy about their result)....



Honestly Google, you've rolled out this new local box 'algo' update too quickly, and are now potentially damaging the reputation of all sorts of upstanding organisations.

I've also read on another blog how this update has nearly sent an online florist to the wall.

Test test test.

YouTube optimisation (optimization), How to rank higher at YouTube

The other night I was watching a local TV show on Australia's ABC network, The 7.30 Report. It reported about how Leader of the the Labor Party, Kevin Rudd wasn't ranking very well at YouTube for a search on "Kevin Rudd". Those 'crazy, mad-cap' comedians, The Chaser's Video had the number one rank.

That's not good for Kevin! It also has serious 'reputation management' implications!

YouTube itself quotes the following about how it determines its rankings...

"YouTube's members rate videos they like, and we review highly-rated and recent videos for consideration in the "Featured Videos" section of the home page and the featured videos on the "Categories" page. In addition, our programming team takes suggestions from members at editor@youtube.com and scans the site for videos of interest."

None of the above really makes sense though, because you can see by the YouTube ratings that there are other video's which have been rated higher further down the results than ones above.

The search for 'Kevin Rudd' at YouTube shows his speech at the Press Club (when he broke into speaking Mandarin) also has a 4.5 star rating, yet videos which have user ratings of 3.5 stars rank higher. It's all very mysterious.

Throw into the mix the 'views' (i.e. how many times the video has been viewed) and you'll see that doesn't correlate to good rankings either. The Press Club video mentioned above has had more views than the Chaser's Video. Still pretty odd.

So there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason for good rankings at YouTube, so let's stick with what we know...

There are two issues to keep in mind when it comes to YouTube Ranking Optimization (or optimizing YouTube Videos for a better rank).

1. The first is at YouTube itself. Since there's no current way for YouTube to know what the actual 'content' of the YouTube video is, make sure your Title, video Description and Tags have the keywords 'Kevin Rudd' in them. A Lot.
   


2. The second is the Google Universal search. How do you optimize your YouTube Video so that it ranks at Google?
   
   The answer (according to Bruce Clay) is to link to the video from lots of other websites using optimized anchor text, like this:
   
   Kevin Rudd
   
   This fits in with Google's standard ranking algorithm. Links = popularity. Anchor text = "what other people think your web page/site is about". Remember, Google doesn't trust you! One of the ways Google can independently measure the veracity of your 'content claims' is by analysing the anchor text used to describe the links to your web page.
   
   If it all fits, i.e. Page content is matched by Anchor Text content, then Google says to itself, "Houston. We have a match!". "The page (or YouTube video) is about Kevin Rudd. The page says so and everyone else thinks so. They're telling us this with the anchor text they're using."
   
   The problem we have analysing this result for Google Universal results is that right now, Google isn't returning YouTube videos for a search for Kevin Rudd at Google. It will for "Darth Vader" though!
   
   However, at the time of this post, there were Google Universal News results showing for Kevin Rudd.

So how can Kevin Rudd improve his rank at YouTube?

I guess part of the answer is above. More text content, try linking to the video from more websites (with good PageRank if possible, ideally using optimised anchor text).

Get labor party members (Kevin Rudd fans) to rate the video highly and add the video to their favourites!

If you perform a "back link check" on the Chasers video at YouTube, you'll find there are about 32 other websites linking to it (at the time of this post).

The 2nd video at YouTube has 16 back links.

Could there be something there?

Your thoughts?

Google Universal, it's not scary, it's just change.

Today I want to talk to you about a conference I attended in August 2007. I wandered along to the Search Engine Boot Camp in Melbourne, a one-day conference hosted by Barry Smyth.

And just when I thought I was pretty much on top of the SEO game, I came away from the conference realising I had a lot of work to do! But let me share some of the insights and important upcoming trends that will change the search landscape for all of us.

Bruce Clay deservedly wears the title of ‘SEO guru’ and runs one of the largest and most respected Search Engine Optimisation companies in the United States. Bruce did a great presentation on SEO fundamentals, and also spoke at length about Google and where it’s going in the next 12 months.

Given that Bruce is a good friend of Matt Cutts (Google’s official webmaster spokesperson), Bruce gets a lot of information directly from the ‘horse’s mouth’ so to speak, about upcoming initiatives Google is rolling out.

In May this year, Google announced the (beta) release Google Universal. Essentially, Universal search will combine lots of different forms of content on a search result page, such as images, maps (local search), news, and (really importantly) video.

You can see an example of how Universal is already beginning to affect search results by typing ‘Darth Vader’ into Google. You can see images, a YouTube video as well as the standard search results, all on the same page.

There are several reasons behind this initiative. The first is to provide different kinds of content so that a user can view and get the kind of content they’re after within the Google result page. For example, you’ll notice you don’t have to visit YouTube to watch the video content; it will play within the search result page itself! (So THAT’S why Google bought YouTube for squillions!)

This creates a ‘stickier’ Google page, where users will begin to spend more time at the search engine rather than performing a quick search and clicking away.

The second reason for Universal is undoubtedly commercial. The more time a user spends on Google, the more chance there is that the user might click on a Google Ad (where Google makes the vast majority of its income).

Bruce talked about how we (as Search Engine Optimisers) should be advising our clients to create new content, in particular video. He’s advising his clients to create short videos, which are then uploaded to YouTube – optimised with relevant titles, descriptions and tags, then ‘linked-to’ heavily to increase their link popularity. This way they stand a good chance of appearing in the search results when Universal is officially launched.

Google intends to fully release Universal about this time next year and when it does, I don’t want my clients playing catch-up.