The question is, How can this benefit your business?

I look at it as like a metric. It’s nice to know how many +1s your content is getting around the world. For instance, let’s say you write a blog post and within 30 days you discover that it has 200 +1s. But what if you found out that 125 of those +1s were local to you? That would be a useful metric, right?

I think it would certainly be a useful metric if your business is a local business. It can tell you how effective you are at reaching your audience and that’s always good knowledge.

Another thing Google is telling searchers is who shared a particular page of content through Blogger. This could potentially make Blogger a much more valuable piece of real estate for SEO purposes, and for social media marketing purposes.

If Google keeps making these kinds of changes to its SERPs, then Google+ could become a much more valuable social media outlet than people are currently giving it credit for. This is worth keeping an eye on.

Specifically, here are a few snippets to bite into:

If I want to find information about very recent events, such as the things going on at occupy wallstreet or occupy oakland, I’ve been finding it much easier to type the hashtags for those into twitter than search at Google or Bing or Yahoo. At this point, Twitter still seems to be very much ahead of Google’s new freshness approach in pointing out recent pages about those protest movements.

Amen to that! Twitter’s been ahead of the search engines on recent information for a couple of years now. Twitter has actually become a breaking news center and is able to get news to the public faster than traditional news outlets. The search engines have yet to capitalize on that need.

(Source) So Google needs to have the best product to continue selling ad space. That product was ironically endangered by Caffeine. With Panda Google tries to solve the content issue and with the Social Signals linked inextricably to the Authors and Publishers tries to solve the obsolescence of the Link Graph.

Bill Slawski concludes:

Some topics demand very fresh content, and social media has raised the expectations of searchers by providing them with a way of finding fresh information on natural disasters, breaking news events, and other topics that are recency sensitive. If you search at one of the search engines and get no results for those topics, that might seem like a failure on their part. Google’s move towards providing fresher results was pretty much demanded by the expectations of searchers who want fresher content.

I for one believe the search engines have not yet fully tapped into social media’s potential for their search results. We’ve got a ways to go. But I do believe they are working on it. Bing is probably ahead of Google in terms of social media impact on search results simply because it includes Facebook in its results. And you can use Facebook to conduct Bing searches.

Don’t think that Google isn’t thinking of ways to make its search better with social media. Google+ is a big part of that effort and I suspect will become an even bigger part of the picture in the future.

While this looks like an opportunity for large corporations like ExxonMobil, Wal-Mart, Facebook, et. al., I can see an opportunity here for small businesses as well.

Let’s say you sell televisions in Port Arthur, Texas. And suppose Magnavox and RCA both have been approved for owning their own TLDs. I can see these companies selling domain names to their dealers for a fee, which would allow consumers to find information quickly about the brand names as well as know at a quick glance where they can go to purchase these brands locally.

It’s also a way for corporations to be able to have more control over their brand’s image. If the company owns its own TLD and is aggressive in protecting trademarks, they could effectively shut down any website not on their own TLD simply through a court order.

Brands that truly want to control information about them online could have a blog, a forum, several information websites, and a load of other domains at their own top level domain extension. The big question would be, How will those TLDs be treated by search engine algorithms?

That could mean that something is broken with the social media website. If there are that many people not getting it, then perhaps something needs to change.

Seriously, though, I don’t really get why people don’t get it. It’s a social networking website where people follow people. Other people follow other people. And everyone following anyone can see all the “tweets”, or messages, that all the people they follow post. The problem is, your Twitter feed is updated in real time so if you follow 100 people and 50 of them post a message within 30 seconds of each other, then you’ll see all 50 messages run by like a ticker tape. What’s to get?

You can pretty much consider Twitter an opt-in/opt-out message forum, or newsreel. I think what makes it difficult for most people to get about Twitter is that none of the messages you read in your feed are related. They just seem random. I kind of see it as Facebook without the threaded comments or the game applications.

So here’s the question: What does Twitter need to do to make people “get it?” Or is Twitter just fine the way it is?

According to the WebProNews article, Google is saying that +1 votes will be used to determine search rankings. But will anyone use it?

I think this is an open-ended question, and will likely remain so for a while. Google has introduced many new developments that have gone nowhere. Need a list? Here are a few:

• Google Wave
• SideWiki
• Social Search
• Shared Spaces

These are just a few of Google’s attempts at social media, attempts that have gone nowhere and that are still lingering in the air. This time, Google is right up front that the effort is going to be used to help determine search rankings. That’s like an open invitation to become a spammer.

Think about it. Any time Google announces that a certain action is being used to determine search engine rankings, then everyone gets on the bandwagon. Remember link building? Or social bookmarking? Yep, the Google +1 button will likely become the next big SEO factor. All the SEO blogs will be talking about it – but they’ll be the only ones.

That may be what Google is hoping for. Call it the Google +1 trickle down theory. SEOs will talk about how wonderful the tool is for SEO. Their blog readers will take it as gospel and begin to use it themselves hoping to push their websites up in the rankings. When the rest of the Web sees the +1 button being used so much, they’ll begin to +1 sites they like and we’ll all be in search heaven.

But will it work like that? Only time will tell. Still, it’s a novel idea. I just hope it goes somewhere.

Such directories often allow you to add a link to your website. Sometimes you have to pay for this link, but it can still benefit you as Google often does not penalize directory listings. However, they can, so make sure you are using a reputable directory and not a spam farm.

When it comes to profession-specific directory listings, there are two types. The first type is the official old-fashioned directory where you submit your listing and it is either approved or unapproved by the directory owners.

The second type of directory really isn’t a directory at all. It’s a search engine. You don’t have to submit your website because the search engine will list it automatically.

An example of the second type of directory is MyVeterinarian.com. Their search engine is powered by Google, which means if you have a website indexed by Google, then it will appear in the profession-specific directory as well. This benefits you in two ways.

First, if someone conducts a search for a vet in a specific area at that search engine, then you could be found there. Secondly, the link to your website from the profession-specific search engine could pass on some link juice and help your website rank better for the right search term. Presto! Two benefits.

I highly recommend using profession-specific search engines. There is not a lot that can go wrong.

He says that semantic language indexing, which Google has been doing for a few good years now, is not the right way to go. Instead, he says, search should be a much more three-dimensional experience.

Particularly, Martinez suggests:

• We should be searching for objects, not information
• The search engines (RE: Google) need to get away from keywords
• Search should be individually configurable
• Every individual should be able to compile his or her individual library of information that is taken from the “main” library of information (the Internet), which is cataloged in such a way that it mimics the Dewey Decimal catalog system of a library

In other words, Google has it all wrong. And all the other search engines too since they are chasing Google.

Michael Martinez says the current search system is a failure because it is based on crowd-based metrics. We are choosing information based on what someone tells us is popular. But in order for that metric to have value, the searcher must be able to select the crowd whose opinion really matters.

I can see where Martinez is going with this. Clearly, we’re nowhere near that paradigm. But while we’re waiting for the search experts to figure out a better method, we’re stuck with marketing to Google. Search marketers have no choice but to work within the system that is available to them. And that causes me to ask, do you consider our current search model a success or a failure?

Five years ago, Internet marketing consisted of search, advertising, and small social media sites such as forums. Today, social media has exploded with Facebook becoming more complex everyday. Some businesses do well with sites such as Twitter while others are finding that forming partnerships with the old-fashioned forums and niche blogs have delivered better results.

The question facing new businesses is where to start, which social media site is going to deliver the best results, and how search will fit into their marketing plans, both now and into the future. If you’re serious about your business, and you are looking for success, then the only approach that is going to work is to have a customized Internet marketing strategy developed for you. Better yet, if you want to stay on top of your niche, is to have that customized Internet marketing strategy developed and managed for you.

Professional Internet marketing strategist are in a position to measure every aspect of your online presence, and then tweak various components in order to gain the most leverage from the traffic coming into your site. A professional marketing strategists can take the traffic you are now generating and increase sales or conversions by several degrees.

If you think this approach is going to be too expensive for your business, then perhaps it’s time to think again. Current trends are showing that customized and managed Internet marketing strategies are delivering a positive return on investment that far exceeds what doing it yourself would achieve. The return on investment is such that businesses can grow at a steady rate with increased turnover and profits generated. Can you really afford to continue without a customized Internet marketing strategy?

Because Google’s guidelines do not have the force of law, how you manage your site and its tactics doesn’t involve ethical decisions (so long as you aren’t violating any laws) but business decisions. You should employ any and all tactics that can and will increase your revenue irrespective of Google’s guidelines.

To a certain extent, he is right. It is your business, and Google’s rules are not laws that you ‘must’ abide by. If a certain practice is good for your business, even though Google frowns on it, then it probably makes good sense to proceed with it. However, you do have to balance the possible effects of a Google search penalty – how much harm will that do to your business?

There is no doubt that Google is inconsistent when it comes to sites breaking the rules. What is dangerous about Google’s inconsistency is the way they apply these rules. Every now and then Google goes on a spree penalizing sites left, right and center for a particular group of breaches. Twelve months or two years later, they pick another group of rules to target. The last big target was paid links, and that caused a real storm.

We are probably overdue for Google to target a different set of rules to ensure they are being followed. By breaking those rules, you could be setting yourself up for a future penalty. Ultimately, it’s your business and your website. If you want to bend, twist, or even outright break some of Google’s rules, that’s your decision. Do your research first to see if other sites are also freely bending or breaking those rules. Better yet, do everything possible within the guidelines, then only bend the rules if you really need to.

So what does this mean, really?

The most significant thing, in my opinion, is that it means a faster Web. It also means that more of the Web is getting indexed. Those two things are pretty significant.

You can also say that Google is able to catch the spam more quickly. But in terms of what it means to you, the individual webmaster, what does it mean?

Here’s what it means in a nutshell:

• You need to focus on real time information (don’t remain static)
• Make sure you don’t look like an idiot because if you do then it will show as soon as you publish – there’s no taking it back
• Try to make your content relevant in as multidimensional a way as possible without watering it down
• Go vertical – news, video, images – any way you can

Just because Google has given us Caffeine doesn’t mean it has given up on universal search and personalized search. They’re incorporated. In fact, every major algorithmic, ranking and indexing change Google has incorporated in the last few years has been rolled into Google Caffeine. That makes Caffeine a pretty special product. But search engine optimization hasn’t really changed at the core. You just have to be smarter about it.

There are two things more than anything else that influence the importance of SEO – increased competition and search engine policies.

Regarding competition, there’s not a lot you can do other than try to out-optimize your competition. That requires some competitive intelligence, but it also requires some aggressive search engine marketing and keyword research. You need to know what people are searching for and how you can meet the demand for information better than the other guys. That’s a bit of a no-brainer.

The tough one is search engine policies. They change, and they can change drastically. Sometimes without much notice. But they rarely change in ways that are unforeseen and illogical.

For instance, in the past couple of years we’ve seen the search engines go from offering 10 blue links of organic results to offering a handful of organic links along with images, video results, and listings from other verticals. Savvy web marketers should have seen that coming. The rise of the verticals almost ensured that would happen. And people demanding better search results all around was a huge factor as well. Plus, it just makes sense. People searching for information on a given topic may not necessarily be looking for a website – they could be looking for a video or an image.

So, search engines change. And that means SEO can sometimes change. But, again, it rarely changes in ways that can’t be unforeseen or that are totally illogical. Just because your friends are going social doesn’t mean that SEO isn’t still necessary. It is – now more than ever.

With Microsoft taking over Yahoo!s search business and incorporating it into Bing, at least two of those strategies are nearly no longer valid. Yahoo! trumpeted paid inclusion years ago, but since search engines have gotten better at crawling and ranking web pages, paid inclusion has not be all that necessary. Any search engine marketer worth his weight in salt ought to be able to get a web page ranked without it.

So what will SEM of the future look like?

My guess is will still involve contextual advertising, or pay per click, but it will also involve some form of social media advertising. As the Web grows more into a social web with search functions, as opposed to a searchable database with social features, the search engines themselves will take on a more social role. Search engine marketing could actually become more social in nature. What do you think?

Most importantly, you never pay a cent for showing up for keywords that you aren’t targeting. In fact, long-tail searches that weren’t planned for can bring in a lot of converting traffic as well.

Every website will inevitably rank for certain keywords and phrases that weren’t being targeted. It’s a part of the natural order of the Web. Some of those keywords will actually prove to be beneficial for you.

It’s nearly impossible to predict what people will search for. Google has said that a 20%-25% of its search queries are brand new searches that have never been seen before. That effectively means that you’ll see a certain number of queries in your server log delivering traffic to your site in unexpected ways. That’s the power of the long tail.

If you can target long tail searches over a long course then you can penny and nickel your way into top search rankings one long tail search at a time. Eventually, if you win enough of the long tail phrases, you’ll start to rank for the general search phrases in your niche as well. And you’ll see loads of traffic coming to your site just because you were persistent enough to pursue the long-tail strategy.

As a group of professionals with varied levels of experience and knowledge in the field, the team at Reciprocal Consulting can all agree on one policy when it comes to our relationships with our clients–honesty. From square one of a given SEO campaign, we aim to communicate our capabilities, our goals and our plan, all within the scope of reason. If we can’t make your website number one on natural search results, we wont tell you that we can, because that is not how a strong client-relationship is built–that’s not how Reciprocal Consulting became a reputable Internet Marketing Firm.

How does one go about finding the right firm for their SEO needs? Simply, by avoiding all the wrong ones. Here are a few warning signs to look out for:

One-Time Payment
This is the first and foremost sign of a clear fraud. An effective SEO campaign will require a constant effort and source of income. While this does not necessarily entail a large budget, it will require consistent communication between the firm and the client. Think about it; no marketing firm can predict exactly how much a campaign will cost from the beginning. This is a clear scam where the so-called firm will accept your one-time payment and vanish.

Guaranteed Number One In Results
While a guarantee that cannot be fulfilled may not necessarily be a scam, it certainly is not the sign of a well-informed or well-grounded internet marketing firm. Anyone who has so much as attempted to optimize a website for natural searches will tell you that a certain “spot” on the results cannot be guaranteed and the reason why is simple: there is no one secret formula. Each campaign has to be tailored to the client to fit their specific budget and their goals. Additionally, depending on the client’s specific niche and the competition for the keywords associated with that niche, it may take weeks, months, and even years before the client’s website shows up on the search results at all.

Increase Your Traffic Exponentially
Believe it or not, this promise could be true–which is exactly why you may not want it!
All traffic has one pro and one con. The advantage is that each visit is one more person who sees your site; the disadvantage is that each visit to your site is one more visit you are paying for! Let’s not forget that bandwidth is not free, so the key here is to make each visit count. This is the difference between Targeted Traffic and Spammy Traffic. The last thing you need is a large number of people coming to your site with no interest in buying your product, no desire to sign up for your newsletter and no need of your service. The idea behind increasing traffic is to attract relevant page views. SEO Fakes can indeed increase your traffic but chances are, the majority of these page views will not convert to potential customers and by the time potential customers “stumble” upon your website, your bandwidth has been exceeded.

They key to a successful SEO campaign is not an industry secret, it is purely based on relevance. The more relevant your keywords are to your niche, the more likely it will be potential clients who follow links to your site. Furthermore, search results are based on the relevance of each search term to your site.

Simply put, just because Nintendo Wii was the number one search on Ebay yesterday does not mean that linking WordPress blogs about the product to your website will increase your sales (unless, of course, you are an authorized Wii seller).