I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but over recent months, Google has begun to make moves which bring back memories of MS in the late 90s. Lately I’ve felt very much like I’m living increasingly on the Google’s Animal Farm.

Conflict of Interest

Right at the top of my list would be their continued assault on vertical search and the obvious conflict of interest this represents. Sure I have a vested interest in all of this because my business is advertising, but this goes beyond all that. There is something inherently wrong with a business that lets others innovate and then simply copies in the case of Google Flights, or acquires in the case of Zagat. Worse still is when a company uses its existing monopoly to elevate their products above those of their competition. Do a search for “Maps” and none cynics among you will be shocked at the results. Anyone remember Mapquest? Apparently Google’s algorithm which lacks any human intervention (nudge nudge, wink wink) feels that they are no longer relevant. Depending on your location when reading this post, its quite probable that Bing Maps doesn’t even factor into the top 5 results either. But dont worry, Google Maps is here to save the day. Ranked number one, organically, for most map related searches you could care to mention.

Double Standards

I’ve been in the online advertising industry for almost 15 years, and in that time I’ve seen a lot of change. One of the most active areas of any online business is SEO. The complexity is ever increasing. As a business we pride ourselves on keeping pace with change within our industry, but the more recent SEO developments have given many of us pause for thought. The list of “commandments” issued by google makes one suspect there is another agenda at work beyond pure search and site usability.

Lets take the issue of duplicate content for example. A site whose whole purpose for being is to replicate content from other sites and order it in relevance, is telling us not to do the same? Apparently they consider pages that have content that share similar characteristics are less releveant to their visitors. This logic evidently doesnt apply to searches performed on their site of course. Search for any multituide for related terms around a topic of your choosing, and you will surely find pages that share results and content.

If that wasnt bad enough, one of the latest statements coming from the search giant now claims that sites with ad heavy pages could also be penalised in search results! (Reported by Search Engine Land) We are clearly dealing with a whole new level of hypocrisy. Yes thats right, a site which gets the bulk of its revenue by placing ads alongside duplicate content is telling us not to sell our own ad inventory (well not too much anyway). Oh, but lest we forget, their ads are super relevent to their users and of course everyone elses aren’t. So guess what Mr Camera review site, your ads for the latest Nikon just dont fill a need. But please, please Mr / Mrs publisher continue generating that content, because without it Google wont have anything to sell its own more relevent ads alongside in their search results.

Conclusion

At the heart of the problem for Google is the need to increase revenue. Simply put. Their goal to organise the worlds’ information is becoming increasingly overshadowed by the desire to increase profits, quarter on quarter. That internal conflict will continue to grow as the revenue numbers needed to be beaten become higher and higher. Adding 10% of growth to a $1M company is one thing but the maths get frightening when your talking about $40B-$50B company.  I’m not sure what or if there even is an easy solution to the problem, but as was the case with Microsoft in the 90s more and more businesses are turning to the law to act on their behalf.  I see this trend set to continue.

By James Ketchell

On the surface gaining online exposure seems like a pretty simple process with little effort, when in fact it requires a great deal of consideration and preparation to work effectively. There are, however, a few simple things you can do that could generate a good level of online exposure which could, in turn, help your search engine rankings.

Domain

First things first, get your domain name right. Search engines will look at the keywords in your domain when determining the relevance of your site, so make sure your URL is relevant to your product/service, this way it will be more likely to rank and appear in search engine results pages (SERPs).

You also need a domain name that is catchy, memorable and easy to type. Don’t go for a long URL and try and avoid using hyphens; a combination of the two will make search engines wary of you and in the worst case scenario, to look at you as spam.

Website

Secondly, get your site right. It’s important to invest a lot of thought into your website as it’s a virtual representation of your brand. Try and think about what you want the public to see, how do you want to portray yourself?

You also need to think about user experience; so consider the layout of your site, which pages do you want visitors to look at? Are they easy to reach? Is the site easy to navigate? Is it clear what you’re offering? How can visitors contact you?

Original Content

Original content is a biggy when it comes to exposure. No matter what industry you’re in, you should always try to be the best resource – give people a reason to keep coming back to your site.

This is especially important if you’re selling a product that doesn’t necessarily require any further interaction after the selling transaction. If you’ve got the means to make videos, original images or infographics then that’s a bonus as it helps with link building.

Original content is also good for search engines so if you’re going to get writing then be aware of your keywords – write about what’s relevant to your business or search engines like Google will send traffic your way that won’t necessarily convert to sales or returning visitors. Alternatively, they’ll see that your content doesn’t relate to the actual purpose of the site and you won’t get ranked at all.

Blogging

Blogs are also great for containing original content but the difference is usually that blogs are less formal and more conversational. While your website might be good for posting informative articles, your blog will always be better for stories about your company, any updates you have, PR and even photos from the Christmas do.

Again, blogging can be good for traffic via search engines but because of the personal nature of the content they’re usually for those interested your company. Another thing you need to be aware of when using a blog for exposure is the URL. If you set up a Tumblr or WordPress for example, make sure you integrate it into your site and put it under your sites URL or your visitors won’t actually be your visitors, they’ll be Tumblr’s!

Note: To get indexed in search engine news pages you will need to submit the individual news page of your site to Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. If they don’t think your content is relevant enough they will reject the page and your content won’t get indexed at all.

Search Engines

You’ve probably gathered that most of the tips in this post revolve around search engines. No matter who you are, you’ll need to befriend search engines to get your site referenced or you’ll be loosing out on a load of customers you didn’t even know you had. Submit your URL to Google, Bing and Yahoo (and anywhere else you want) and they’ll start matching your site against search terms.

As mentioned above, they all also have separate submission forms for news sites/pages; this is another great way of getting seen in SERPs for keywords (providing you write news, of course). Google, in particular, has a strict set of guidelines for news submission so before you invest time and money in news writing; make sure your site abides by the rules.

You can also maximise sites like StumbleUpon.com and Reddit.com that can be another source of traffic and exposure if used in the right way. Be wary though as these kind of sites aren’t directed at your target audience so, again, the traffic might not help. If you’re looking for sales then you probably won’t see any benefits from this kind of thing.

Forums/Knowledge

Going back to the ‘best resource’ point made earlier, forums are another way prove how much you know about your industry. A lot of people try and use forums for advertising by posting about their latest deals or new products but most of the time, that’ll just get you kicked out for spamming.

The trick with forums is subtlety. Find a forum related to what you do and give people advice, start conversations and get your name around. Making the most of your signature is important as it will be seen in every comment you post so get your company name and a sentence on what you do in there.

This doesn’t just apply to forums, nowadays there are a load of website that generate discussions around specific industry topics. Quora.com is a good one, also try and maximise social sites like LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a great community of groups and discussions that is often overlooked. All of these kinds of sites help with exposure.

Note: Search engine procedures mentioned in this post are subject to change.