Jagger, Google Analytics, and the Future of Search & SEO
Jagger, Google Analytics, and the Future of Search & SEO
By Glenn Murray SEO Copywriter (http://www.divinewrite.com/)
& Article PR Specialist (http://www.articlepr.com/) (c) 2005
Two big things have just happened in Google-land: Jagger and
Google Analytics. Together, these two events may have changed
the face of search forever.
Jagger
First, let's discuss Jagger... Just like hurricanes, Google
updates have names. (A Google update is a change to the way
Google determines its rankings. Google makes these changes
periodically, and they're universally feared because they can
impact dramatically on a website's ranking.) The latest update
is called Jagger, and it has search engine optimizers (SEOs) all
around the world in a state of panic.
Why was Jagger such a fearful update? Simple... With Jagger,
Google once again outsmarted huge numbers of SEOs. You see,
many/most SEOs spend their time (and their clients' money)
trying to trick Google into thinking that their websites are
more relevant and important than they really are. They do this
mostly by swapping links, buying cheap links, and placing links
on free directories. While there's nothing wrong with these
sorts of links (i.e. they're not considered 'black-hat'), they
don't really show that the site is relevant or important. All
they really show is that the site owner has made a deal with
another site owner. In these deals, the incentive for the
linking site owner is a reciprocal link, money, or increased
link volume. Google much prefers it when the linking site adds
the link simply to enhance the value of their content or to
increase their own credibility and authority.
In other words, Google wants its search results to contain
relevant, important sites, not sites that merely appear to be
relevant and important. To this end, Google invests millions of
dollars and employs the world's smartest mathematicians to
create algorithms which identify sites that are trying to trick
them. And that's exactly what Jagger did; and when it found
those sites, it simply adjusted their ranking to more accurately
reflect their true importance.
From a technical standpoint, Jagger was well described by Ken
Webster in his article, 'Google's Jagger Update - Dust Begins To
Settle?' (http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20051110GooglesJaggerUpdateDustBeginstoSettle.html ). The
most important points noted by Ken were:
1) Increased importance placed on IBL (Inbound Links) Relevancy
2) Increased importance placed on OBL (Outbound Links) Relevancy
3) Promotion of relevant Niche Directories (related to #1 & #2)
Some other interesting effects were reported by WG Moore
(http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2005/nov/9.html ). By
monitoring the links to his test sites as reported by Google,
he established that:
"... Google is down-grading or eliminating reciprocal links as a
measure of popularity... a few of our reciprocal links did come
back up... from articles where we discussed our area of
expertise: Web Analytics... So we feel that these links came
back because of content, not linking."
In short, Jagger undid the hard work of thousands - if not
millions - of people! As a result, hard-won high rankings and
revenues plummeted.
Interestingly, article PR (article submission -
http://www.articlepr.com/SEO_Article_Submission.shtml) came
through Jagger seemingly unscathed. My SEO copywriting website
http://www.divinewrite.com, for example, went from no.4 to no.1
worldwide for "copywriter", and I've employed article PR almost
exclusively. Whether it was promoted or the sites around it were
demoted, one thing is clear: article PR is one of the best ways
to obtain a high ranking.
Google Analytics
The second monumental event to occur recently was Google
Analytics - http://www.google.com/analytics/index.html . Google
Analytics is a free web-stats solution which not only reports
all the regular site stats, but also integrates directly with
Google AdWords giving webmasters an insight into the ROI of
their pay-per-click ads. According to Google, "Google Analytics
tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors
found you and how they interact with your site."
Why is this such a landmark move? Because for the first time
ever, Google will have access to your real web stats. And these
stats will be far more accurate than those provided by Alexa -
http://www.alexa.com . Furthermore, Google's privacy statement
says: "We may also use personal information for auditing,
research and analysis to operate and improve Google technologies
and services." - http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy.html .
Now let's put two and two together:
1) Google is 'giving' every webmaster in the world free access
to quality web-stats.
2) Millions of webmasters will accept this 'gift', if only
because it integrates directly with their Google AdWords
campaigns.
3) Google will then have full access to the actual web stats of
millions of commercial websites.
4) Google will have the right to use these stats to develop new
technologies.
5) What's the next logical step? Google will use these
statistics to help determine its rankings.
It should come as no surprise. It's been on the cards for a long
time. For example, Jayde Online CEO, Mel Strocen, recently
published an article on this very topic, 'The Future of WebSite
Ranking' (http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/The-Future-of-WebSite-Ranking.html ). He quite rightly asserts
that:
"Google's "democratic" vision of the Web will never be achieved
by manipulating algorithm criteria based on content. It will
only be achieved by factoring in what is important to people,
and people will always remain the best judge of what that is.
The true challenge for search engines in the future is how to
incorporate web searcher input and preferences into their
ranking algorithms."
In fact, the Jayde Online network already owns and operates a
search engine, ExactSeek (http://www.ExactSeek.com ) which
incorporates user popularity statistics in its rankings.
The Future of Search & SEO
To date, ExactSeek is the only search engine which uses visitor
stats as criteria for its rankings. But Google isn't far behind.
We all know that Google specializes in taking a good idea and
implementing and adapting it brilliantly. This is exactly what
we'll see in this case. By combining link popularity and user
popularity statistics, Google will be the only major search
engine to consider both what other sites think of your website
and what your visitors think of your website. And because they
have the most advanced algorithms for assessing link popularity,
and will soon have access to the farthest reaching, most
accurate web stats to assess user popularity, its competitors
will be a long time catching up.
So if that's the future of search, what's the future of SEO? The
future of SEO is undoubtedly one where:
� one-way text links from relevant pages continue to be the most
valuable links
� reciprocal linking continue to decline
� the 'shotgun' approach to link buying declines
� mass email link requests decline
� free directory submission declines
� niche directory submission increases
� article PR (article submission) increases
� article submission sites
(e.g. EzineArticles - http://www.ezinearticles.com ,
GoArticles - http://www.goarticles.com , and
ArticleBlast - http://www.articleblast.com ) play a much
bigger and more important role in helping online publishers
locate quality articles (due to the increasing article volume)
� user popularity is just as important as link popularity, which
means:
o the quality of article PR improves in order to increase
site traffic, credibility, and loyalty
o the quality of website content improves in order to
convert traffic and encourage repeat visits
Clearly, the choices for SEOs will be pretty much limited to
paying for links at niche sites and/or engaging in article PR.
Being an SEO copywriter, I may be a little biased, but for me,
article PR is the hands-down winner in this comparison:
� It satisfies Google's criteria for relevance and importance.
Linking site owners include your article and link because, in
doing so, their site becomes more useful to visitors, and their
business gains credibility and authority.
� It generates hundreds of free links quickly enough to make it
worth your while, but not so quickly as to raise red flags at
Google (in the form of link dampening).
� Links are permanent and you don't have to pay to keep them
there.
� You get a lot of qualified referred traffic who already trust
you and your expertise. This satisfies Google's visitor
popularity criteria, while at the same time bringing you a lot
of extra customers.
(For more information on article PR, read ' How to Top Google
with Article PR'
(http://www.articlepr.com/SEO_Article_Submission.shtml .)
Conclusion
The lesson from Jagger is, don't try and trick Google! They've
got more money and more brains than virtually any company in the
world. It'll only end in tears! Don't spend time and money
trying to make your site look important and relevant. Instead,
spend that time and money actually making it important and
relevant! Content - the real content behind the optimization -
is the answer. After all, whether it's an article or a web page,
it's the content that keeps 'eyes on paper', and that's what
it's all about.
Happy optimizing!
*******************
Glenn Murray is a website copywriter, SEO copywriter,
(http://www.divinewrite.com ) and article submission and article
PR specialist (http://www.ArticlePR.com ). He owns article
submission service Article PR and copywriting studio Divine
Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at
glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.DivineWrite.com or
http://www.ArticlePR.com for further details, more FREE
articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book.
posted by Victor Lloyd Smith @ 9:08 AM
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