Most companies stumble when technology shifts. How can that happen with search engines? In 10 years the web will be 32 times as powerful as it is now. So instead of many results you may get a single Answer. At least that is what Kevin Maney suggests in his Atlantic Monthly article.

Actually, Google does have an option for this-it is the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button which takes you directly to the 1st web site. Not exactly a button to inspire confidence in Google’s ability to give the Answer. In Hebrew it is worse-the rough translation is “More luck than brains“.

Google’s Hebrew Interface’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button is roughly translated as “More Luck Than Brains”

Will Search Engines Give Us One Correct Answer in the Future?

I personally don’t think there is one correct answer to many questions, so we will continue to get many results for searches. In any case, I wouldn’t want the search engines to decide for me what the Answer is. That is not to say they can’t do a better job of organizing and filtering the answers. Bing’s search engine results are a step in the right direction.

What Does Google Have to Worry About?

Maney explains how Microsoft worried about companies like Novell and Netscape Communications. Its real competition - Google - was 3 years from starting operations. Google’s real competition has probably not been invented yet. It will be interesting to see if Google is able to buck the trend and reinvents itself when the competition shows up.

A book on Keyword strategies.

To me it seems that any Internet marketer is already doing all the insights mentioned in the promo text for this book. That is not to say that the book is not worth reading-chances are it may have some ideas you don’t know about. However for those who are too lazy or cheap to get the book here is my take on each of the insights:

Note: I did not read the book so I am not knowingly giving away any of the authors secrets.

In “50 Kick-Ass Keyword Strategies“, you’ll discover insights such as:

• How to reach beyond the obvious keywords to discover terms and phrases with untapped commercial value.
  My take: Lots of free advice on how to do this on the web. Start with a Thesaurus. My favorite is to search on Google for ~keyword –keyword. That will let you know what Google thinks is a related word. Not that useful but a lot of fun. The book may also mention using Wordtracker.
• How to use keywords in your page titles, meta descriptions and headings to create well-balanced copy that thrills the search engines
  My take: Again, there are many places on the web that explain this. Basically, you sprinkle the words around and don’t over do it. Put the keywords 1st as people don’t always read through.
• How getting rid of words like free and discount can boost your conversion rates and get you better customers.
  My take: Be careful with this one. Getting better conversion rates and better customers are not your goals. Increasing revenues is. Therefore this is just a means to an ends and may not be the best strategy for you.
• How mining your analytics data can be the key to uncovering valuable, low-competition keywords that bring in valuable streams of traffic.
  My take: You are always looking at the keywords people use to get to your site–aren’t you? Paying special attention to the converting keywords–in order to find new keywords to target?
  Make sure you are using an analytics package that will easily get you this information. If you are using Google analytics this can be a challenge for the Adwords campaigns. There are workarounds you can find on the web.
• How to easily get a second page ranking in Google that can double your traffic for related keywords.
  My take: If they have an easy way to get your competitive keywords on the 2nd page that alone may be worth the price of the entrance fee.
• Which research tools you should be using to create a website that blows your competitors away.
  My take: I wonder if Wordtracker is one of the tools. The other important tool is the one between your ears. You will also find  many more keyword tools on the web.
• How your site’s search box is the key to finding profitable new keywords and content ideas as well as ideas for new products to add to your website.
  My take: You are checking what people search for with your internal search engine aren’t you?
  
  Analysis of internal search keywords can be very important for keyword research and to help improve your website
• How answering your consumers’ common questions online can help you improve your business image – and bring in more search traffic than you ever thought possible.
  My take: Conversion optimization is always a good idea and your answers to visitor questions will likely include the keywords they search on. Think price and cost.
• …and so much more!
  My take: If your credit card is burning a hole in your pocket feel free to buy “50 Kick-Ass Keyword Strategies”. But if you liked my answers, you can read more of our free SEO stuff here.

How does Microsoft’s new search engine—Bing–deal with search in different countries

If you are wondering why I am comparing Bing in different countries—see my previous blog post.

The first thing I like to do is see what a search engine thinks of itself. Even though there are a lot of Bings (Bing Crosby, Bing Energy Drink, etc) it is expected that the search engine will rank first which it does. However in the News section right below, Mayor Bing of Detroit, outranks it.

Bing results for Bing are also populated by Bing’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Bing Shows all things Bing—twitter, facebook—and the Canadian version. Click to enlarge.

Google doesn’t think too much of Bing. It gives it top billing but doesn’t include the twitter and facebook links. Click to enlarge.

Regarding Global search, the 3^rd result in Bing for Bing is Bing’s Canadian site. I expect that this is a bug and will be corrected soon. If we take the bait and go to Bing Canada we get a nice home page although the background photo looks more like Greece than Canada.

Bing Search Engine in Canada is apparently located in Greece. Click to enlarge.

Let’s go inside. When we search for Bing from Canada the News moves up. I guess Canadians value news more that the Americans—or at least Bing thinks so. The Canadian version of Bing is in the number 2 position although the URL is not as nice as Google’s Canadian version, which is more intuitive and uses the Canadian country TLD.

The Canadians are also on the move more. Bing mobile is the no. 3 entry, whereas in the US version it is not even on the 1^st page.

Notice the related searches on the left hand side. These also change when we compare different countries. There are a lot more campgrounds, parks and retreats—although the first 4 results are not even in Canada. Bing knows that Canadians are more interested in nature and recreation.

Canadian results emphasize News and the mobile Bing. Click to enlarge.

Bing’s suggestions are not localized judging from the one test we did. The same results come up for the USA, Canada and India.

Suggestions are not localize. Click to enlarge.

I also like how the language options are integrated. Americans have a Spanish option in the top right corner and Canadians have a French option.

By the way, here are instructions on how to get your blog listed in Bing.

Enough with Bing—Let’s try Shoes

Shoe results are interesting. You get 20 results instead of the usual default 10 for the same price in the USA (left screen shot below). US shoe buyers get the Bing results categorized:

• Shoes Brands
• Styles of Shoes
• Top 10 Shoes (this is a weird one—look for yourselves)
• Shoes Buying Guide
• Reviews of Shoes
• Shop for shoes (with photos and prices)

In India, no such luck. There is no categorization and only 10 results. There are no pictures or prices. However, you do get a couple of ads at the top. And more results: 191,000,000 vs. only 151,000,000 in the USA. Google has 278,000,000 results in the United States vs. 280,000,000 in India. So no matter what search engine you prefer, if you like to be thorough–use the India search engines.

Bing breaks up the search results into categories in the United States (on left). In India (on right) you get less results on the page but more total results to surf through. Click to enlarge.

A lot of people have explained what Twitter is about but I would like to show how it was a natural outcome of what the web has done to our reading habits.

Of course, some people use twitter in the way it was intended – to keep in touch with friends and family. And they actually tweet every hour or so to let us know what they are doing. But some people have 1000s of followers. And some have 10,000s. One of my followers has 120,000 people following him.

One of my followers has 124,542 followers. Can they all be interested in what he is doing all the time?

All these people do not care what a person is doing every hour of the day. In effect, what many of these people are doing in using Twitter as a way of keeping up with what is happening with subjects that interest them. Which begs the question – why use Twitter? We already have RSS feeds.

Twitter has one big advantage

• People skim and read the first words more
• If the test is in a feed or in a subject line the trailing words can get cut off
• Search engines look at the first words first

What Twitter does is impose the discipline of being concise. If we get a feed we don’t always get the complete thought because the writer was unaware that she will be cut off. However with Twitter the writer is restricted to 140 characters so they must put thought into every word. Much in the way the Readers Digest would provide concise versions of longer articles; Twitter provides a short synopsis of articles, blogs, and sometimes complete thoughts.

So the main advantage of Twitter is that instead of lopped off sentences, we get short tweets that are well thought out. And all of us prefer to scan short versions before we commit to longer versions, right? There are other advantages also. One example is that when you scan your Twitter, you view many feeds all at once-saving time–whereas if you have RSS feeds to your email client you have to click and review each one separately.

Automate Twitter

That is why if your business doesn’t have time to deal with Twitter, you can still use it as a feed from your blog. That way people can quickly scan your blog’s first 140 characters on their iPhone, Blackberry or even on Twitter. And if the Tweet is good they will click through to your blog.

Of course, the Readers Digest was often accused of skewing the meaning. No doubt, after you click through some tweets you may find that the longer version does not meet the promise of the first 140 characters. Nothing has changed except that everything is getting much shorter.

Barak Obama did an amazing job of leveraging the Internet for fundraising and campaigning. Have the Israeli’s taken note?

Comparing the Google Search engine results for the three candidates it is easy to see that one of the candidates is savvier than the others. We are using Google in our analysis since it is the most popular search engine in Israel. We used the search term which I believe (and Google also believes) most searchers use - full name for Livni and Barak and last name for Netanyahu. This is what Google also thinks as you can see in the screen shot below.

By the way, Google shows that Netanyahu searches are much more popular than the other candidates. Since there are many undecided voters this could be an indication that Netanyahu will win most of the undecideds. However, take this with a grain of salt since Google search volume stats are not that accurate. For more information on predicting outcomes based on web analytics, I recommend you read the book “Click” by Bill Tancer.

Google keyword search results for Livni, Netayahu & Barak

Google trends (not always accurate) also shows that Netanyahu is leading in searches and he is even leading in news coverage (lower graph). This is unusual since he is in the opposition and Barak and Livni are in the government where they can more easily make news. If the graph is correct people in Israel are becoming very interested in Netanyahu.

Google Trends Chart: Netanyahu is blue, Livni is orange and Barak is red. Netanyahu is pulling ahead on Google

Read more about SEO and SMO in the Israeli Elections…

Google’s Algorithm knows what to do with competitors

You have to hand it to Google. On the one hand its spokesperson says, “Having great competitors is a huge benefit to us and everyone in the search space,” Watson said. “It makes us all work harder, and at the end of the day our users benefit from that.”

On the other hand, its algorithm really knows what to do with competitors. Look at the first search engine result for Cuil below and you will see what I mean.

Google’s algorithm proves itself. Out of 1,550,000 results it picks the best one (from Google’s point of view) to be number one

In the end I agree with Google’s spokesperson - competition is healthy. Google has the advantage, with years of human algorithm analysis (labels, years of search data, human review of results, etc.) It will be interesting to see if Cuil can prove to be a competitor.

Google vs. Cuil Search Engine Results

Although a comprehensive test comparing Google to Cuil is needed, a few searches can point out many qualitative differences. In a search for mens shoes, Cuil offers refined search ideas on tabbed pages along the top and a drop down menu labeled “more…’. There’s also an Explore by Category window, which can be helpful.

Cuil results page has more options for refining search than Google.

By contrast, Google’s results are not as rich. There are no tabs with refined search options to choose from.

Google’s results page for men’s shoes has no refined search options

Comparing the top 10 Cuil and Google results, only 2 web sites are in both SERPs. Notice that Google sometimes links to interior pages while Cuil always links to the home page on this particular search. This may be a hint that Cuil tends to prefer web sites with the search term on the home page. Or that they analyze a site whereas Google has more of a tendency to analyze a page.

The main question is whose results are best? For a commodity item like shoes I prefer the Cuil results which help me refine my search. Listing stores isn’t enough for me. Ideally a search engine would show me the top stores that I prefer but this is way beyond their capabilities now. They don’t evaluate service, selection, shipping terms, etc..

Cuil vs. Google SERPs in order of results. Only two results appear in the top 10 for both engines.

Google’s “Refine Results” vs. Cuil menu, tabs and categories

Although Cuil provides more refined search suggestions more often, Google’s “Refine Results” for Uterine Fibroids outshines Cuil’s tabs and catagories. Treatments, Causes, Tests, For patients, For health professionals and others are all useful categories.

Google’s refined search options for uterine fibroids

One thing that most certainly helps Google here is the labels provided by volunteers. For example, if you search on uterine fibroids and then click on the Treatment refined search, many of the results are labeled as you can see in the screen shot below.

Google’s refined search results labeled by MLA - Medical Library Association and HON - Health On The Net Foundation

By contrast, Cuils catagories appear less relevant. This is probably because Google’s input makes use of human input (based on their label system), while Cuil seems to be using algorithms. Only an algorithm can get you circumcision as a relevant link for a woman’s medical condition (see screen shot below).

Cuil’s explore by category offers circumcision on a search for uterine fibroids

Cuil is the search engine with the best sense of humor

When I search for SEO Israel, the first spot is our company choir singing a funny SEO song on Metacafe. What is really funny is that they linked to the Hebrew version instead of the English SEO song.

What I really love about Cuil is that our company takes the top spot in all 3 columns. Now all I have to do is convince everyone to use Cuil and I will have it made.

Cuil gives my internet marketing company the top spot on all 3 columns - what’s not to like? Click to enlarge

I thought it was interesting that here in Israel, Google and Microsoft located their offices very close to each other as you can see below.

I had to wade into the water so you could see how close the Google and Microsoft offices are. You can see my sandals in the foreground. Click to enlarge.

Close up of Google’s offices

Close up of Microsoft’s offices

Israel is a very small country and it isn’t unusual for competitors to locate near each other.

There are also great reasons to locate here in Haifa (full disclosure–my office is in Haifa too):

• A beautiful view of the beach
• Close to the Technion–with a great supply of excellent engineering graduates (full disclosure again: I am a Technion graduate)
• Close proximity to freeway and train

Despite our marching towards a global village it seems like local customs still influence multinationals. It is nice that both Google and Microsoft employees can enjoy the view of the Mediterranean.

The Israeli beach–not a bad view for hard working search engine people.

Today we posted our SEO Cartoon Quiz. I hope it will create a lot of smiles in the Internet marketing community (I don’t think regular people will get the jokes). As soon as we finished setting up the quiz a lot more ideas started to come to us. Maybe we will have to put out another edition one day.

Most people realize that different languages demand different keywords and strategies. However, English is a special case. It is now the de facto international language leaving Esperanto in the dust.

Not everyone pays enough attention to the fact that English is used differently by different users. There are more second language English speakers than native English speakers in the world Their use of English is different than native English speakers. There are also many different English dialects. North American English and British English are the most well known. Consider these examples where the first term is used by Americans and the second by the English:

• Diapers vs. Nappies
• Apartment vs Flat
• Elevator vs. Lift
• Uterine Fibroids vs. Myoma

Consider the following factors when working on an English Global Search Engine Marketing Strategy

• Use of different words to describe the same thing by different people
• People who know English as a second language have a tendency to make more typos and spelling mistakes when they search for keywords.
• People who know English as a second language use less sophisticated searches – fewer keywords in the string and simpler words

All these factors should be taken into account when starting a Search Engine Marketing Strategy. Also, don’t forget to make sure your landing pages use simpler language for your visitors who use English as a second language.

You may notice that Google sometimes shows additional links under the first search result. For example if you search for InSightec (a company that developed a solution for performing non invasive Uterine Fibroid surgery) there are sublinks for: 2006 News, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound, etc. These sublinks are called sitelinks by Google. Sitelinks have been around for a while and there has been speculation to when they appear. Google doesn’t explain much other than the fact that they are shown when they think it will be useful to the user. You can read their official explanation here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=47334&topic=8523. So what does this mean?

How to Get Sitelinks

From casual observing, I believe that they are shown when a very high percentage of people click on the first link. In those cases, Google can justify using more real estate for the first search result, which inevitably crowds out other sites. So to get more interior links from Google all you have to do is make sure that your site gets almost all the clicks — easier said than done. One tip is to choose unique names for products and company names. This will help ensure that most people click on your result when searching.