Note To Small Business Owners: Unlearn
The Need To Unlearn
It went official this week: Google now has behaviorally-targeted PPC Ads. Before we talk about the ramifications of this act on small/business owners, let’s figure out what this actually means.
Explaining Google Behaviorally-Targeted PPC Ads System:
Google has raised privacy concerns with its newly launched interest-based advertising, which displays ads based on users’ previous searches and page views.
The new Google advertising system, currently in beta, links “categories of interest” to the user’s browser, allowing targeted ads to appear even when the user is looking at a page totally unrelated to the ad’s subject matter.
Let’s not forget to mention, even though Google’s not saying it, they’re targeting by IP Address as well. Meaning, you don’t have to be logged into your Google Account to get “personalized”, behaviorally-targeted ads. And, this is just the beginning folks. While it’s not fully-instituted in SERPs (search engine results pages), the SEO/SEM community has been following this trend for over a year now, and we’ve seen instances of “personalized” results peeking in and out of the SERPs already.
If you read my November 2008 post, I discussed this topic there as well, but briefly.
Why Small Business Owners Need To Unlearn What They Know About SEO:
Small/Business Owners Need To Unlearn Their Obsession With Rank
Unlearning is about the most difficult thing to ask anyone to do, let alone small/business owners who just got on the SEO bandwagon and want to see RANK. For years they’ve resisted, were reluctant to throw their hat in the search/web marketing ring. And, sadly, for them, the rules have changed.
SERP Rank is Dead
RANK is dead. The introduction of behaviorally targeted, personalized search with PPC has now opened up the flood gates. In this new era, it hardly matters where you “rank” for certain keywords. Users will have the most relevant results served up to them based on previous search habits and geographic locality.
Mind you, this does not mean SEO is dead. Far from it. SEO is more important than ever. With this new spin on search, comes decreased visibility for terms that national/global users would have found you for. Competitive or not, you could have sloppy SEO and still do well. Add in the fact that “brands” now have “higher trust”, thanks to the Vince Algorithm change, it makes it all the more important to have solid, core SEO built and implemented onsite.
All this aside, for years owners have been duped, in large part by the SEO community itself, to focus on where you RANK for keywords. And, boy, did they buy in. It consumes them. It perpetuates a never-ending cycle of calls about less-than-business-centric keywords, because they did a search and saw that they went from Position 7 to Position 10. They’re not taking into account the one thing they all got into business for in the first place: to make sales. To pad the bottom-line with profit.
Unlearn Your Obsession With Rank
Yes, that’s right. Stop thinking about it. If you need something to do because it’s a rainy day, or you don’t have meetings, then look at them (and then throw them away). Otherwise, stop it. Instead, focus on if you’re site is converting users to a sale, to a purchase, to an anything, as long as it drives more business through the doors. And, considering, the downward-spiraling economic disaster looming in the coming months, this should be your only focus: get more business coming through the door.
Rank is a luxury. Sales aren’t. Quit wasting your time talking about why a keyword dropped from 3 to 5, and start focusing on if your site is fully-optimized onsite, if your user paths are clean and concise, and if your forms are painless and easy. Once again, in the near-future, everyone’s SERPs are going to be different for the same keyword, based on numerous factors and habits. Make sure you’re focusing on sales and conversions, that’s all that really matters.
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Let’s not forget that SEO is a young field. With millions of advertisers and users, wouldn’t you want something more targeted to your patterns. This is somewhat similar to our grocery coupons on the back of our receipts that target what we buy. Is it too far or welcomed?
http://www.captureprofits.com/blog
Really great posts on this blog and some interesting thoughts here. I still need to dig into the demographics on content network, I’m anxious to see if it will provide any insight, have you tested? I believe all of Googles data from all of it’s services intersect in some ways and possibly leave a algorithmic footprint or impression in unexpected ways. Or maybe Google is just broken.
An example of this would be 2 of my sites:
Goto Google and search for “chicago heating repair”
In google maps, look for my (under construction) website http://www.searchoneweb.com
searchoneweb.com is found for “chicago heating repair” in Google Maps
I’m almost 100% I know what happened but need to do further testing before making an ass of myself.
If you have any thoughts on the subject or would like to discuss sometime please contact me through one of the websites, Cheers!
Actually, the new behavioral targeting only affects those text ads on the content network, not within search. http://tinyurl.com/bq6pom This change actually has little to do with rankings, and this non-search type of behavioral targeting has been around in online ads for ages.
The other change, however, (and the one that happened long ago, so it’s not really breaking news) is the targeting based on IP address. And Google has been saying it since the middle of 2008. http://tinyurl.com/6n43f7
In terms of brands gaining more trust since the algorithm change, Matt Cutts recently addressed this in one of his YouTube discussions. The change doesn’t affect a majority of queries, and doesn’t necessarily put brands first. Most people, and most small businesses, will not notice this change in the online landscape. http://tinyurl.com/d8sost
The one real truth here is that there is a decreasing importance on specific search rankings due to how people search and how search engines are interpreting that data. But this is just joining Bruce Clay and others in the long-standing chant of “Ranking is dead.” What’s more important is what comes next, and how we evolve. Turning attention to semantic web and new forms of engine information parsing is more useful than cursing the changes Matt Cutts and company have implemented last year.
Lauren:
A few points of contention with your comment. (Not that I like to argue or nit-pick)
1) The Google Blog: not once do they actually mention the name “content network”. Of course it’s implied, but why not come out and say it for concerned “users” who might not want specific targeting? And, if you read between the lines, it also implies they are/will be in the near future applying these behavioral-targeting techniques to actual SERPs. So, Lauren, I like to think that just as you speculated how and where these behaviorally-targeted ads will appear to users, I too can extrapolate and speculate from the information read and project they are already using this within Search-Based Results.
2) You are correct, they have been talking about IP Targeting for some time. But how many users/marketers actually knew this and know that it affects their search results? Not as many as you would think. Of course it’s no big secret, but it’s always important to keep the base information in front of people.
3) Do I trust Matt? Yes. Do I necessarily believe everything he says? No. And neither should you. Unfortunately, this change will affect search results, and just because Matt Cutts “says” it shouldn’t, doesn’t necessarily mean it will. We’ll all have to wait and see on that one.
Lastly, there is more than “one real truth” here. There are several truths here with the larger focus on “goal conversion” and through-put, instead of rank. I’m talking about SEO that is more than gray-hat techniques for keyword stuffing/density and link building. I’m talking about a fully fluid SEO that is well-versed in all forms of website marketing: usability, lead maximization, brand-building and monitoring, as well as SEO.
Remember, Google, while there motto may be “Do no evil”, is a company. Evil is part of the playbook. They’re in this to profit just as all of us are. So taking everything they’ve ever put on the web/paper as gospel is just silly and naive. I point you to the Google -60 Penalty and Filtered Search Positions. They do what they have to make more money.