Our Monmouth Blog

comScore Releases April 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

According to the May 22nd comScore press release “April 2008 saw Americans conduct 10.6 billion core searches, with Google Sites continuing to gain market share as the leading search engine.”

The report continued:

In April, Google Sites extended its share of core searches to 61.6 percent, up from 59.8 percent the previous month. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 20.4 percent, followed by Microsoft Sites (9.1 percent), AOL LLC (4.6 percent), and Ask Network (4.3 percent).

There is no doubt Google is the steak and the potatoes in the search industry. If you are serious about improving your Internet marketing ability you need to strongly consider how you can improve your Google search results. Search Engine Marketing should be a part of any businesses marketing plan. Local businesses can make their mark in search if there is a focused effort.

There has been a recent flurry of blog posts about whether or not Industry Search Engine Standards (SEO) are a good thing. I initially thought industry standardization could be a good idea. By definition a Standard is a practice or a product, that is widely recognized or employed, especially because of its excellence (Source: answers.com). The Internet has advanced and prospered through standardization. W3C has done a great job in organizing, communicating, and advancing web development through the excellence of its programs.
Since Google is the majority of the search engine opportunity it remains the focus of the SEO industry. Google has declared its own set of standards and most of the industry is already working within the Google defined frame work. Others have taken another stance and have said that they will run their business as they see fit. For example, John Chow does not follow the Google standards and continues to do very well and his successes are published regularly.
I have been recently critical of Google and worry about its role in the future of information. The problem is that Google has been not only vague and hypocritical about optimization practices. What I find more disturbing is that Google has a “do as I say, not as I do” attitude in its press and through its spokespersons. I touched this topic last month when I posted “The Google Hypocrisy”.
While standards might not be the best thing for a portion of the industry I do think it would ultimately benefit the consumers of SEO services. There are unfortunately a few bad apples that have given the industry a undeserved bad name.
Below is a few related articles I tagged over the last few weeks:
Bruce Clay
Search Engine Land
SEOmoz
SEO Roundtable
Aaron Wall
John Chow

What are your thoughts on SEO Standardization – Do we need a standard?

comScore Releases March 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

According to the April 15th comScore press release “March 2008 saw Americans conduct 10.8 billion core searches, representing a 9-percent increase versus February.”

The report continued:

In March, Google Sites extended its share of core searches to 59.8 percent, up from 59.2 percent the previous month. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 21.3 percent, followed by Microsoft Sites (9.4 percent), AOL LLC (4.8 percent), and Ask Network (4.7 percent).

There is no more important mission for the online marketer than to rank well in search engine results. With the number of websites and web pages growing daily by unfathomable numbers it is critical that you not only rank in Google and Yahoo but you rank well. As a local small business owner the opportunity is to rank in your local market. For example, if you are a photographer you would want to rank for the following search terms:

Photographer
NJ photographer
Monmouth County photographer
Red Bank NJ photographer

The above search phrases are listed in order of difficulty. Google yields 92.2mm results for the term “Photographer” but only 1.8mm for the term “Red Bank NJ photographer”. While it could take years of focused effort to rank well for the search term “photographer” a local business should be able to rank well for the other above related search terms with a well executed short to medium term marketing plan.

How important is search engine rankings to your business?

Best wishes

In a recent press release Google Inc., the world’s leading search engine, said “it was concerned about the free flow of information on the Internet if Microsoft Corp. were to succeed in acquiring Yahoo Inc…….“. If this is not hypocrisy than what is?

If there ever was a company that in theory could control the free flow of information it is Google. Yes that darling little company we all love and praise has the potential to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In a fantastic article written in Feb 2006 Chris Taylor has the courage to start “Imagining the Google of the Future”. In the article Mr. Taylor asks

“What kind of company will Google become in the coming decades? Will it succumb to hubris and flame out like so many of its predecessors? Or will it grow into an omnipresent, omnipotent force–not just on Wall Street or the Web, but in society?”

There are obvious social and moral obligations to those that control the flow of information. There is also huge money and big business on the line. If you are a small local travel agent what are the odds you can compete for a highly competitive search term like “book a trip”. The odds are stacked against success for many reasons including funding, man-power, and technology. Top paid results always go to the highest bidder and natural search engine results are dominated by only the biggest corporations in the travel industry. Every time there is a shift in Google’s search engine algorithm top placements in competitive search terms will undoubtedly change hands. With such money and business on the line could Google give in to such temptation? I can dream up more than a few conspiracies.

Because of Google’s relevance and potential it has a great responsibility to the Age of Information. According to the comScore Core Search Report September 2007 Google sites process 57% of all search related traffic with Yahoo as the closest competition at 23.7%.There are no signs that Google’s continued dominance will slow in the coming years. There are many analysts that predict Google will gain up to a 70% market share.

It should be a concern to all that Google has made a point to clearly state its position against this merger. With so much at stake it will be interesting to watch the future unfold. We all need to consider these facts and how it could potentially impact us all personally in the future. It could influence the information your daughter or son finds for a research report or it may give your business competitor an advantage. On thing is certain, for the time being Google clearly is on top of the information food chain.