Something Happened in Fort Wayne???
Ok, I have been fighting this SEO battle for quite a while. Â I’ve been trying to get this site to the top of the page in Google for the terms “Fort Wayne Web Design” and “Fort Wayne Website Design”.
Well, I ‘ve had some decent success, but I’ve still been struggling – at least lately – with getting on the very top of Google. Â It seems like the last 2 – 3 months, I have been hovering at the very last entry on page one or the very first on page two.
But just today something very strange happened. Â My site jumped to 2 or 3 on the first page. Â Not sure exactly what changed. Â But, it’s a good thing.
Also, my listing on Google Business now appears in the top few (like top 4 or 5).
So, if the Google ranking holds, I’ve now got number 2 on Google and number 3 on Bing – weird – I just went to check Bing and I’m now at number three. Â I used to be number 1 on Bing. Â Once again – what happened????
Anyway, I’m happy and I’ll keep looking at it.
Google Caffeine?
No, I’m not talking about the latest Red Bull or the latest drink at Starbucks. If you haven’t heard already, I’m talking about the latest update to Google.
As anyone reading this blog would know, I’ve been really interested in gaining Google ranking for the terms Fort Wayne Web Design and Fort Wayne Website Design. Â So far, I’ve had a decent amount of success. Â If you go to Yahoo or MSN Â (both BING.COM, now), I rank 1,2 or 3 (it depends – on what? who knows?). Â But, on Google, I only rank 11 – that means I am number 1 ON PAGE 2. I’ve been moving up and down quite a bit on Google. Â I’ve been as high as number 5 and now as low as number 11.
I have a bunch of thoughts about why I’ve moved down lately. Â Mostly, I think it has to do with some settings in my robots.txt file. Â I was trying to avoid the infamous duplicate content penalty – a tricky problem with Wordpress. Â But, I think it did more harm than good.
So, the question is, what does all of this have to do with Caffeine? Â Well, recently Google has been publicly talking about a major update to their website ranking algorithm. Â They are calling “caffeine”.
Here’s a few bullet point about what Caffeine means to all of us who care about Search Engine Optimization:
- SPEED – rumor has it that the new update will speed up the search process a ton – but, I’m not sure who really cares. Â I don’t know that we all complain that it takes too long to get the results.
- RELEVANCY – this is where it starts to get interesting. Â Google is trying to create more relevant results. Â But, the million dollar question is HOW? Â What is changing to make more relevancy?
- WEIGHTING – it appears that some different things are being weighted higher. Â It seems like Domain Authority and Domain Name exact matches are both being weighted higher. Â Certain tags – like facebook and others, are being weighted higher, etc.
Want to know more? Â Here’s a few resources to get you started:
- http://mashable.com/2009/08/14/google-caffeine-video/
- http://mashable.com/2009/08/10/google-new-version/
- BEST OF ALL – side by side comparison of OLD GOOGLE and NEW GOOGLE – http://www.comparecaffeine.com/
The first link from Mashable has a video interview with Matt Cutts. Â Here it is embedded for your viewing pleasure:
Matt Cutts Wordpress SEO Advice
As you all know, I’ve been spending time thinking about Search Engine Optimization (we call it SEO to sound cool).
I’ve been trying to optimize for the terms “FORT WAYNE WEB DESIGN” – just in case you are interested.
Well, I just started listening to a talk Matt Cutts given at the WordPress WordCamp event in San Francisco.
Matt Cutts is the head of Google’s webspam team. Â So, his thought about SEO mean a TON.
Well, he gave a 45 minutes talk about SEO and Wordpress. Â Since I am totally into the topic, I thought you might be as well.
Here’s the talk:
Which Search Engines Matter?
For quite a while now, I’ve been on this on-going “battle” to work on Search Engine Optimization (SEO – if you want to sound cool) for my own site. Â I’ve had some good success, not perfect, but still pretty good. Â As of right now (Tuesday, morning, August 11, 2009) here’s where I stand for Fort Wayne Web Design:
- Google – 9th (still on the first page)
- Bing (MSN) – 3rd
- Yahoo – 2nd
So, what I find really interesting about the results is the question: based on the rankings above, which sites would you assume send me the most traffic?
Well, the obvious answer would be Yahoo, followed by Bing. Â After all, I have a much higher ranking on those two search engines. Â And, while I am on the first page of Google, I’m not “above the fold” – meaning that my site won’t appear on most monitors – you would have to scroll down. Â So, all this adds up to mean that you would think that I would get a significant amount of traffic from sources like yahoo and bing.
But (and I know you can sense it coming), that would be wrong. Â The reality is that Google, despite my poorer showing, sends me much, much more traffic. Â And, while that didn’t surprise me a ton, what did surprise me is just how big the difference is.
Take a look at the graph below:
Taken from Google Analytics, it shows traffic coming my way from the top 4 search engines – ONLY search engines – other sources are filtered out. Â What surprised me was that Google sends me 20 times more traffic than Yahoo and an amazing 145 times more traffic than bing. Â As a matter of fact – bing ranks up there with baidu – a Chinese search engine.
So, what’s the moral of this story? Â I suppose it’s the ongoing story of the utter and complete dominance of Google in the Search Engine arena. Â And, while I wish I ranked higher on Google, maybe being in the top 9 is “good enough”. Â Maybe, just maybe being in the top 2 or 3 isn’t worth the work it takes.
