Optimizing online accounts according to the algorithmic guidelines

Businesses can use a variety of strategies in order to establish a valuable online reputation. For both my customers, as well as the participants of a training, I follow a methodology for the optimization of  websites together with social media, find- and visibility in Google and advertisement. At the same time, I tune these toward the belonging algorithms, which in other words also could be described as ‘calculation metrics’’ as they carry a significant relation with the position of both Ad’s and websites, as an example one could think of:

·         Quality score algorithm for Adwords

·         Relevance score algorithm for Ad’s in Facebook

·         Local (Pigeon) for local search results

·         Linkbuilding as an overall algorithm for websites and web pages in Search

Especially for the improvement of find-and visibility in Google, it’s impeccable for companies and their online marketers to understand the regulations of those belonging algorithms. During my career, I too oftentimes saw companies jeopardizing their goal due to a lack of knowledge.

Both Facebook and Google pay attention to visitor behavior and grant those ad’s and websites that obtain the highest score. In my view, it would be highly recommendable if companies, ‘before making an investment,’ examine the amount of experience and knowledge about algorithms, and only seek for those partners/person who can demonstrate a proven track record.   

The combination between Google-Google & Google

Data collection represents an important portion of the daily activities in online marketing.

In the current time, technicians and marketers can gather quite of lot information about the performance of online content. By analyzing the gathered data, it becomes possible to determine to what extent a particular piece of online content matches the expectation in terms of money, time, and last but not least effort.

During my training, I learn participants to work with tools. These tools are partly provided by Google, and also by other providers explaining the difference Google-Google and non-Google. As an end-result, attendees know how to measure the performance of all relevant online platforms, and subsequently draw conclusions to what extent an investment has constituted the expected result.

For both marketing- and sales departments it would be a significant value-adding solution when they are capable to analyze how visitors correspond to the provided content, as well as, the ability to create highly-personalized content.

Product-feeds and Links

In the current ‘internet-environment’ online shops are obligated to work with product-feeds. From a practical point of view, feeds can contain up to thousands of characters, frequently depending on its product specifications. Firms should also pay attention to an online platforms regulations and policies. ‘Google Shopping’, is a very popular and frequently used platform for the promotion of products, here one has to be aware that feed performance is connected to the ‘Google Shopping Guidelines’. Although it is possible to develop your own feeds, it would be wise to have guidance from an Expert.

‘Links’ also like product-feeds, might contain quite a lot of information. Due to the algorithmic strength of which ‘links’ do carry, I would urge everyone to spend enough time on this element, as it will have a direct influence on our visibility in ‘Search’. Particularly since the latest algorithm changes have caused a shift towards quality rather than quantity. One of the starting points for an online business is the integration of keywords within the URL codes. Whenever, someone wants to either promote or refer to online content this is often realized via a link. 

Corresponding to the 3.0 algorithm update

Taken into consideration all algorithm updates which have been executed over the years, it might become a quite challenging task for businesses to determine which actions are necessary for creating a more efficient, as well as, effective performing virtual marketplace. In order to get a better understanding of a firm’s algorithmic status, a ‘Google Spreadsheet’ will help to create an overview for the long term. From a practical point of view, firms need to separate the online marketing disciplines over the column and subsequently store the activities underneath each topic.

In my view, companies are going to benefit from this method as it will lead to an overview representing the executed activities, what is still missing and in case its regard consistent optimization of certain activities what the current status in the process consist of. Another advantage is that the above method can also be used for the fundaments of a competitor analysis.

Google Automatic Suggestions to detect relevant keywords

In order to develop efficient web pages capable to trigger both online visitors, as well as, search engines, one should use tools in order to analyze the popularity of keywords and subsequently determine whether these words do match with actual products and/or services. Hence, it would be recomendable to set up an excel sheet containing all relevant synonyms about the selected keywords which should be used for the description of your selected keywords.

A strategy that is currently used more often in order to gain higher conversion from organic search results, is to collect words which are presented by Google once people do enter either individual or a combination of multiple keywords in the search bar. These presented keywords partly represent previous search queries and are a result of Google’s algorithm.  

Google Trends and the popularity of keywords

Position number one in Google Search, profitable or not?

Occasionally, I receive messages from people saying their products are already listed as number one in Google Search by for instance adding location behind a particular keyword. Another example that is frequently mentioned is that people do not understand why they are not getting conversion nor customers; although products are listed at top positions.

Such questions are easy to answer with the aid of Google trends. This tool enables the possibility to analyze the popularity of keywords based on, comparison, region and timeframe.

From a business point of view, it is quite often a challenge to rank well for competitive keywords, since this will increase conversion including target segments.

Algorithm update 3.0

In my previous blog post, I mentioned that the two concepts called ‘Black and White Hat’ are dominant factors in Google’s algorithm, and thus vital for the online visibility for websites and webshops. 

Currently, Google is filtering their algorithm with new regulations one has to keep in mind, as an example to this: I have recently been called by a person who explained to me that his website has fallen from a well obtained top position in list one in Google Search, back to list seven. An occasional fallback from a website is nothing new, as this has happened before, however, due to the recent 3.0 algorithm update, I believe this will happen more frequently in the near future. 

Considering this recent update, it will become a challenge to make sure your website is still in line with Google’s 3.0 algorithm regulations. From a practical point, this means that existing deployed tactics should be re-analyzed in order to determine whether these are still accountable. Websites, having executed too much ‘Black Hat’ strategies (illegitimate strategies violating Google’s regulations) are risking a comparable fall down as the one mentioned above, or will not rank for top positions for highly competitive keywords.  

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BLOG / GOOGLE’S ALGORITHM: RECIPE FOR ONLINE SUCCESS

With the current online marketing environment, people are familiar with concepts such as: SEO, SEA, Social Media, Conversion and Analytics; on the contrary, it becomes rather vague for people if concepts such as ‘Black Hat’ and ‘White Hat’ are mentioned. In my view, the importance of both becomes more visible in algorithmic changes, since they possess significant influence and value in the optimization process of websites.

Before talking about Google’s algorithm, I think it’s beneficial people do understand what an algorithm means in the first place, and second its purpose: as Wikipedia states, an algorithm is:

“A set of rules that precisely defines a sequence of operations” 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithm

If we now talk about Google’s algorithm, there are a couple of basic principles, one should keep in mind:

• According to Google’s announcement their algorithm contains over 200 factors, also called signals
• Nobody outside Google knows the exact algorithm
• The value of each ranking factor of the algorithm is variable

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