Is Google Looking for a Home in Boston?

While there are often rumors of what Google is going to do next, the latest one hits a little closer to home...

It seems that Google may be looking to expand into the Boston/Cambridge area.  Several articles and posts have been written in the past day discussing Google searching for space and posting jobs here in Massachusetts.  Here are a few to note:

• Google Looking to Expand in Beantown?


• Tasty Chowdah: Google Moving Into Boston


• Is Google Planning to Expand in Beantown?

Does Search Engine Optimization Have a Future?

In January, I wrote a post on what topics I felt would become big themes for 2007 in search engine marketing.  I still feel that all of these topics, Web Analytics, Competitive Analysis and Social Media, are all critical to our ability to our being a high value service to businesses and website owners, but I may have missed one important idea that has been building in my mind, probably since before Google's IPO.

What will search engine marketing - or specifically, search engine optimization become, and can it survive as an industry?

In recent months and in various ways, SEO experts have been debating this topic a great deal, whether or not it directly begs the question at hand.  The topic really became visible in late 2006, after Dave Pasternack's article came out questioning the value in SEO.  This conversation escalated through the forums of search discussions and was even addressed by Danny Sullivan in his rebuttal article, "Yes Virginia, SEO is Rocket Science". 

But the debate about what brings value out of SEO has been talked about in our industry before Pastnernack offered his opinion.  In early 2006, Social Patterns asked the question of why "Large SEO Firms Suck?", which emphasized Jim Boykin's thoughts on page tagging as well as Rand Fishkin's conversation with Dana Melick. Clickz contributor Shari Thurow offered a good outline for identifying a well rounded set of skill sets that distinguish qualified SEO professionals from the amateur SEO shop, including usability experience, copywriting and web development/IT expertise. That article came out in 2005, when many people were just realizing that reciprocal links weren't as valuable and maybe you should have more than just your product information on your website for content. 

Within the past couple months, SEOmoz posted a definition of the SEO expert and SEOBook challenged the notion that SEO is the only industry trying to capitalize on a customer base.  Meanwhile, SEO names such as Jim Boykin, Jeremy Shoemaker and Todd Malicoat, "Stuntdubl", have begun embracing social media because they realize that these sites drive traffic, have millions of users and offer a high potential for obtaining inbound links.   These discussions and the visibility of SEO's utilizing new opportunities online all contribute to an existing undercurrent:

What does SEO become in the near and distant future?  Can SEO survive?

Most of my in depth discussion on the topic has been around a local watering hole in Davis Square or at 8PM in the conference room at KoMarketing Associates on a Wednesday when I wanted to home by 7.  Meaning, I haven't been discussing this on a personal level with the aforementioned names above, all of which I read fairly regularly.  I was at the inaugural SEMNE meeting a couple weeks ago and listened to a great presentation by Fredrick Marckini which helped revitalize some of my own thoughts on the business of search engine optimization.

So my answers to the questions above:

• To the second question: "Yes" SEO will survive.
• To the first question (which requires the longer explanation):  SEO will become whatever strategy is required to bring people searching for your product or service, to your website, your contact form, your payment authorization page, your email inbox and your sales staff.   

Marckini stressed the notion of reaching out to vertical markets directly or indirectly related to traditional search engines, such as local search, social media sites and niche search offerings (such as news search, video etc). He suggests this because search engines like Google and Yahoo can only become incrementally better at how they rank and prioritize search results based on variables and factors related to their algorithms.  That comment precludes an assumption that eventually people will no longer use a search engine to find what they are looking for.  In fact, search engines will just become an integrated component of any mechanism/product or service that an individual uses. 

I agree with Marckini's conclusions (which echo other leaders thoughts on the industry). I believe that as long as people are searching for anything, and using Internet technology to do so, search engine optimization will be required, because businesses need to know why search technology ranks or does not rank their information ahead of the competition for whatever mechanism presents search results.  More importantly, as Google, Yahoo and other search technologies strive to integrate themselves into the everyday applications we use, SEO professionals are the ones that understand what factors make or break website visibility in search.

That means that if integrating video tutorials into YouTube brings your business quality traffic, leads, and referrals, it will transcend to how Google values your website overall.  If your images will provide you a growing appreciation from the audience in Flickr, Yahoo will take notice.  If the community at Digg, "Digg's" your articles and information, you will probably generate both traffic and inbound links, which transcend to long-term SEO success.  If your website has valuable content, a user-friendly design and experience,  engages the visitor effectively, and your business is using web analytics to identify statistics like page views, bounce rates and average length of time on site, you have a better shot at succeeding in Google's personalized search. 

Search Engine Optimization - Beyond 2007

As long as people are searching for something, using Internet technology, there will be a need to understand what the mechanisms are that prioritize search results. Search engine optimization becomes a practice of understanding where not only users, but users potentially interested in your information, will be online, what sites they visit, where their questions are being answered and what tools they are already using to find information like yours.  As technology evolves and changes, our job as SEO professionals is to identify and utilize the emerging tools and resources available that will drive traffic, visitors and improved search engine rankings to your website.  People will not stop searching, but the sources of information that influence results will.

Alexa Data - Additional Support Skewing It's Accuracy

We frequently talk about the inaccuracies of Alexa data when looking at their reports and information presented.  While Alexa can be a reasonable benchmark for establishing some form of search visibility, it should not be maintained as an authoritative source of information, because the data is heavily skewed towards toolbar users and their demographics and preferences, etc.

Here are two recent posts supporting this statement from well known (and respected) folks at our favorite little search engine.  The original is on Peter Norvig's website and further expanded on by Matt Cutts on his blog last night.

Teaching Your Clients SEO

There was a discussion at High Rankings a few weeks back about training clients to maintain their website after it is designed.  The conversation began with the question of whether it is better for web developers to teach clients how to maintain their site or to do it for them? 

Not being in the web development industry I don’t have an exact answer to this question.  But it did start me thinking about the same type of question in regards to SEO.  How much should you teach your clients about the SEO process?  Do they need to know the ins and outs of search engines?  Should you teach them the aspects of keyword research and link building?  Or is it simply better to do these things for them and only teach them the basics?   

We try and give our clients as much information as is useful to them.  We want them to understand what we are doing but we don’t want to give them too much information.  One of the worst things you can do is overwhelm a client with documents that make no sense and have no value to them.  It’s a waste of your time and it’s a waste of theirs.

Here is an example:  At a previous SEO firm I worked at we would spend 10-12 hours putting together an extensive technical document for every client.  We would send it to them, get on the phone to discuss it and realize the majority of the clients not only had no idea what any of it meant but didn’t even read it. 

We also take into consideration the knowledge level of each client.  With keyword research for instance, we want each client to know why we do it, how we do it, and how it’s going to help them.  It is important they understand things like what the search volume numbers mean, why broad terms aren’t necessarily better or why they shouldn’t have the same keyword on every page.  Does a client really NEED to know how to perform keyword research?  No probably not.  But the more they know about it, understand it and see the time and effort that go into it, the more they value you and that time you spent doing it. 

Another major factor to think about is the client’s expectations.  What exactly are they expecting from you?  If a client signs a contract expecting that you will do the work, implement the recommendations and report to them once a month then the level of information you give them is minimal.  If a client is expecting calls once a week and details on what you are delivering to them, explaining the processes is very important and you should give them the appropriate information.

Basically, the best thing you can do to determine if the information will be useful to the client is to ask the question “Is this going to be beneficial to both them and us?”   Maybe you shouldn’t spend three hours of a client’s time and money explaining the link building process to them.  But if it will help them understand the value in SEO and more importantly in you, then it may be worth the time.  The way I look at it, the more knowledge and understanding the client has of what we do, the more they value us as a whole.