Google is all over the map in the way it displays search results,  but it looks like  SEO, web-hosting, and web design are not!

Well, technically they’re still  “on the map”  but the map is not showing up any more in Google searches.

Yes, in case you missed the news,  Google local map results are not being shown any more for web designers, for search marketing firms,  or web hosting.

Why?
It’s still unclear, and to my knowledge, there’s been no definitive explanation from Google.

As a local webhost / search marketer / developer, I’d like to point out that this sort of… well…  sucks to be singled out, and to me it makes no sense.

A Little History for Beginners
Google introduced local map results into the mix quite a while ago, and they’ve changed when and how they display several times.

After PPC ads came along, searching for a local business showed like this -

About two years ago, they started showing a map, and either one or three results, when someone did a search that included a geographic target.

Then in January of 2008, they dramatically tripled the front page real estate to show TEN results,  although late last year they knocked that number back to just seven.

(photos source)

Obviously this had the effect of pushing the organic search results even further down the page, below the PPC ads and below the map results, effectively making the number one organic spot appear in what is really the 14th position.

The entire web marketing industry changed for local businesses, and a new niche was born, with a different set of ranking factors almost completely unrelated to typical SEO.

What’s Happening Now?
Nearly two months ago, November 2009, they began to make some more changes, and then suddenly were not showing ANY map results for “web design” when a city name was included.

This was followed quickly by Web hosting, and they have now removed the map results from all SEO, and Internet marketing services type phrases too! Huh.

On December 14th Brian, a Google employee noted on another thread -

…it looks like a lot of the recent search examples on this thread have to do with web design, SEO, and other services of that sort.

It’s possible that instead of being related to the original issue, Google.com doesn’t bring up map results for these types of searches because the search term doesn’t show much local intent.

Oh really? There’s no local intent on a search for Portland web host?  Puh-lease.

On December 31, a Google employee caused quite a stir when he said this:

Today, we’re intentionally showing less local results for web design / SEO queries. For example, [web design sacramento] doesn’t display local listings today.

We believe this is an accurate representation of user intent. In some cases, we do show local listings, however (as NSNA/php-er noted) [web design in bellingham].

I’m sure some of you feel we should be displaying local results for queries like [Web Design Vancouver]. I understand that concern, but based on our understanding of our users, we feel this is the right decision for now.

But using “In” Counts?
Before Joel from Google replied, someone pointed out that using the word “in” does trigger the maps, but Joel didn’t address that at all.

Yes, it seems that by using the word “in”  – a word that has pretty much been accepted as an SEO stop word – users will trigger these drastic result changes.

Will it’s use just affect Google maps, or will having “in” in your title tags now factor higher in organic listings?

Perhaps that too,  will be industry specific? sure would be nice to get a list of those industries? Unreal.

Is this Fair?
They don’t need to be “fair”, or even reasonable!  Google can do whatever they want, and in this case, it sounds like they want just tell us “thanks and goodbye“.

If someone searches for “plumber Portland” or any one of hundreds of other products or services, they’re going to see local map results, but for Portland web hosting, they’re not. That’s just the way it is.

The fact that this could happen to any industry tomorrow is what’s the most frustrating, and does seem a bit unfair – not so much to us, the “evil industry”, but to the public, who rely on our interpretation and expertise?  What are we, as industry professionals supposed to tell clients?

Over the past year, we’ve been seeing local businesses pretty much ignore the organics, in favor of local efforts, but maybe they should just put  “in”  before every city name in their title tags?

I Think Google is Being Arrogant
In 2007,  I was at the Search Engine Strategies Local conference in Los Angeles, and during a Q&A, I asked John Hanke, the Director at Google Maps:  “Besides having an address near the center of the zip code, what factors determine ranking in local search?

Rather than give me anything useful, he appeared almost shocked that I would ask such a thing, and he actually said he “wasn’t there to give away  Google algorithm secrets”! (Not even at SES?)

I was stunned, and some members of the audience (who seemed to be mostly advertising executives and PPC managers) laughed at my stupid question.

Today, there is a wealth of local search information and search knowledge like you can’t believe. The entire industry is making Google gazilionaires,  and they want to treat us like this?

Frankly, I think that Google is simply spitting in the face of the very industry that helped build them up in the first place.

The Teaching Moment
the word, “it”  – a word that most SEO’s have long treated as just an SEO stop word, is now going to trigger these DRASTIC changes.

However, This fact only applies to some industries, and that list is subject to change, although there IS no list you can see.

Got it?

Just like the weather here in Oregon, if you don’t like the way Google search works today,  just wait a while because you can bet it’s going to change again, and probably soon.

Note – In complete irony, this Monday’s snail mail contained a window decal and a letter from Google maps stating that I was a “favorite place” -  which is now pretty much pointless!

Before Google’s announcement that the speed at which your site loads for visitors “matters”, we’d all heard it said repeatedly that it did NOT matter for organic rankings, but that it may someday, and it seems that day arrived early last month.

When I rolled out the SEO Automatic review, I chose to include the checking of site compression, and showing file sizes, even though the collective wisdom of the SEO industry was that your page load time was only a factor for your Google Adwords Quality Score, and for the user experience, but it was not an organic ranking factor.

At Pubcon last month, in my web hosting presentation, I talked for the third year in a row about speeding up your website. My logic was that what’s good for visitors was good for the search engines, and nobody wanted to sit around and wait for a page to load.

Near the end of my slides, I said I was predicting Google would make page speed a factor very soon, and the very next afternoon, the announcement was made by Matt Cutts that they now were. Am I a heretic? Hardly – others had been saying the same thing for a while already.

So, now that speed “officially” matters, Google is further stressing the importance by adding info to Google Webmaster Tools, and here’s a 4 minute video I made showing you what they’ve done, and their Firefox tools as well.

There were a few changes at Google this month which I’ve been pointing out to clients, so I’m posting them here too.

I added the month to my title, because I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more of these types of game changers as time goes on.

You & I See Different Search Results
On December 4, while I was in Los Angeles at an Affiliate Convention session, a rumble went through the crowd after someone shouted out “Hey, Google is showing personalized results to everyone whether they’re signed in or not”!

Now there are search industry pundits that think it’s a good thing, those that think it’s a bad thing, and those that think that it really doesn’t matter but there’s no denying that it changes the game.

All end users will now see more varied search results than someone else. Even though this has already been taking place for a while based on their IP location and Google data center differences, now, those differences will become even more substantial based on their browsing history.

(Is it based on the whole IP address? Is it just per browser? Is there a machine or CPU ID? I don’t yet know – do you?)

Real Time Search
The personalized results change was overshadowed in the media by some big announcements on December 7th, primarily about their new real time search.

It’s hard to replicate on demand, because it only shows up for highly active topics, like a search fopr “Obama Speech” in the couple of days following one, or search for a news event as one is happening,  like “winter solstice 2009″  you’ll see an actual moving/scrolling section of the latest news and Twitter Tweets in what’s practically real time.

Do you think this will add to the current noise level in social media and news?  I sure do, and I call it a “game changer” because of all the auto posting that will now undoubtedly be put on steroids, in anticipation of this expanding further.

Google Goggles
Take a photo with your cell phone, and Google will tell you what it is.  Cool for the Eiffel Tower, but is seems to have pretty creepy potential issues for that woman sitting alone in a bar, isn’t it?  Check out their short video…

Wherever you fall on the potential privacy issues,  I do think that the technology is going to be a game changer as it continues to evolve.

Keeping You on Google Properties
Google is delivering more and more information to users without then needing to leave the results page. Lokk at a search for your favorite football team as an example, where you can see the score, their leading rusher, and the date and opponent for their next game without clicking through.

(Do you think this is a fair representation of what Rupert Murdoch is concerned with? You can see the image from the NY Times, and the info coming from the Atlanta Journal Constitution)

*** Update – 4pm ****

Oops – Looks like this last item below was just  more browser monkey business – AdWare – called “Browser Highlighter”, on my computer.   I guess I jumped to conclusions,  but with so many other Google changes this month, it really didn’t surprise me all that much!

Selling the Front Page
Just this minute, I’m seeing color Ebay ads on the front page, while I’m not even signed in to Google.

Is it a sponsored ad? No…  Is it a pay for placement? Pay for inclusion? Is is Pay Per Action, where Google gets a piece if a sale is made?  Who knows?

So, in addition to PPC ads, we’re now going to see this sort of paid result, further moving the organic SERPS lower on the priority list and in some cases, well below the fold.

Where’s Amazon, and can they bid against Ebay?  I wonder how long it will be before there are other brand banners, perhaps even larger? Will they be doing the same thing inside Google’s Wonder wheel?

I guess we’ll be finding out soon, as Google continues to change the game for everyone, consumers and marketers alike….

Doing a search the other day I was stunned to see a new interface from Google showing me tabbed results, with other relevant search phrases lined up across the top.

I had been using a brand new laptop, so I walked over to my main computer to get a screen shot, and  I wasn’t able to re-create them.  I went back to the laptop, did a search, and *poof*  they were gone.

A couple of days later,  Iman from Train Signal noticed it too, and he managed to get a a couple of screenshots up.

Assuming that this display of SERPS becomes the norm, this is going to cause search marketers to rethink what phrases they optimize for and what phrases they bid on via PPC.

For our own sites, I’ve always focused my organic efforts on phrases which had the highest frequency of search.  Gearing content and inbound links for those highest volume phrases seemed like it offered the most bang for the buck.

It was the same thing for PPC really, and by looking at the “impressions” column in Google Ad Words, we know what words are searched for the most frequently, and we could adjust our bids accordingly.

Now though, in showing us these terms, Google is giving us more food for thought.

But Where Are These Terms Coming From?
Savvy marketers have been poking around Google’s “Wonder Wheel” for some time now, because it really gives you good insight into the logic behind what Google believes is relevant.  (Here’s a short Wonder Wheel video I made a few months back)

In thinking about it, I had assumed that these related tabs were coming from the same place as the Wonder Wheel terms, but I can see that’s not the case by doing the same search that Iman did.

As you can see, NONE of the phrases are the same, which leaves me to wonder what’s really driving these  relationships of supposedly “related terms”?

They’re not coming from the highest volume searches according to Googles keyword tool either.  Despite playing with the match type, I couldn’t get a similar set of results to come up at all.

If they’re not from the keyword tool, and they’re not from the Wonder Wheel,  I thought they might be coming from the Google Suggest feature, which has been a REALLY great way to do some keyword brainstorming, but nope, that’s not the case either.

What’s the Point of the Tabs?
I have to wonder, what is Google’s motivation for putting these tabbed links up there in the first place?

Will they really be showing end users the most relevant results or will they just be hoping to show more niche searches to get their ad revenue up?

Some on the web are speculating that Google is simply trying to monetize every aspect of search,  that they’re trying monopolize online shopping, and maybe that they’re becoming the worlds largest super affiliate.

I’ll leave it to people far smarter than I am to figure out the inner workings of where this information is coming from, but it won’t surprise me if it turns out they have something to do with how well advertised the phrases are, with high search volume and a higher CPC.

Wherever they’re coming from, these related search term tabs are going to be right in everyone’s face, and should dramatically increase the use of these related searches by consumers and by marketers, as we look for new opportunities to target, both organically and via PPC.

While browsing through the stats of some (very poorly maintained) sites of our own, I found one that had zero traffic for quite a few weeks. Visiting the site, I saw no site, and just a “Cannot connect to database” error.

A glance at the toolbar showed me a PR zero, and indexed pages in Google (site:domain.com) brought up nothing but a few wp-content pages that should have been blocked by a robots file anyway. Sigh.

Further investigation revealed that we had a corrupted database, and by restoring a WP database backup from a Gmail account dedicated to backups, we had the site back pretty quickly.

A few months ago, the site was a PR3 with decent traffic, and now, it was a PR0 with practically no pages in the index. Bummer.

What Did I Do?
Inside Google Webmaster Tools, I went to Site Reconsideration on the top left, then “Request Reconsideration” in the center of the next page.

Here’s what I wrote:
We lost our database on this rarely attended WordPress site, and although we had traffic and PageRank, now the only indexed pages are ones that don’t even belong there, like /wp-admin pages. We’ve done nothing wrong, just left ourselves hanging in the wind too long with no pages there. Might we get reincluded please? PageRank back too?
Thank you for your consideration…

How Did it Work?
I’ll have to let you know. Maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and it will be back?

I was just mid-session on Google Webmaster tools, when I clicked on a link and saw the message – “that page no longer exists”.  Huh?

I went back to my home page for WMT, and that too was a bad link. Weird. So, i went to my IGoogle home Page, went back into Google Webmaster Tools, and “wham” everything was different!

Apparently, I had now been forced into their “new look and feel” that until this moment, had only been an option.

As I was exploring the menu on the left, trying to get back to where I was, I saw a new option that made my heart skip a beat – Could it be?

 Yep, sure enough, I clicked the link called “change of address” under the site configuration menu,  and was taken to a new screen for -  you guessed it – MOVING DOMAIN NAMES.

This feature was LONG overdue, and I think I first started wishing for it back in 2006, after doing eeverything “right” and still getting a site dinged after changing domain names.

At some point, I asked for it at a  Webmaster Tools conference session (either SMX Advanced or maybe Pubcon) and my request actually got a round of applause!

Anyway, I still don’t really like the new WMT interface, but with this improvement, it’s a lot easier to take… Thank you again, Google!

“Universal Search” was implemented by Google quite a while ago, yet the only visible change to the search results has been occasional interspersing of some video or news.

Search was not really “revolutionized” or “changed as we knew it”, and most users have absorbed the subtle addition without even noticing.

Likewise, “personalization” has been assimilated into Googles search with only search industry professionals even noticing or caring.

Then, (what seems like ages ago), Google began implementing local results into the serps if the user searched with a geographic term, such as “dry cleaners Portland”, and just over a year ago changed from showing just three, to showing a full 10 local results.

Just a few weeks ago, Google began “determining your intent” to search locally even if you REALLY did not intend to. That means that a search for “dry cleaners” began showing the local maps results whether you wanted them to or not, and again, most end users really didn’t even notice.

This week another seismic shift took place, although in their usual fashion, Google is rolling it in very subtly, and the casual user may not even notice. They’ve added a “Show Options” link above your search results.

After hitting that link, there are a whole host of ways to filter the search results, and this is really a better implementation of “universal search”, in my opinion.

One of the new options would be of most interest to search marketers, called the Wonder Wheel, and this video takes a look at it more closely…

I thought it only fitting that I use my 500th blog post to say goodbye to Microsoft as they begin their slide into obscurity.

As innovative as Microsoft has been, and as influential as they were bringing a computer to nearly every desk in the world, I’ve long thought their days were numbered.

I won’t go into any of the reasons so many people despise Microsoft here, but in my mind, the countdown clock started ticking long ago on their lifespan, and the sprint to the finish started yesterday, with Google’s release of their “web browser” called Google Chrome.

Okay, I suppose it’s not exactly a sprint, but Google sure picked up the pace, and they’re not making any secret about the fact that this “browser” is destined to replace operating systems like Microsoft Windows.

I suspect that this sudden public release has something to do with CNN’s report that the new Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 may be blocking third party ads.

Most users wouldn’t likely take the time to learn how to block ads, but if Microsoft were to actually block the ads by default, then they could put a sudden and serious dent in Googles revenue stream.

This article on the Yahoo Business site today says this:

This represents Google’s long-anticipated head-on attack on Microsoft and its Internet Explorer…

and it says this -

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said Chrome was designed to address the shift to using software from within a Web browser rather than as locally installed computer applications running inside Microsoft Windows or some other operating system.

and finally, this -

Google believes any task done in a standalone desktop computer application can be delivered via the Web and Chrome is its bet that software applications can be run via a browser.

With nothing but an open source operating system and a web browser, Google believes it can change the world, and I think the smart money is on them.

I just went through a quick installation that was pretty painless. I downloaded Google chrome from here, and was greeted with this message -

Then in a few seconds, this window popped up -

I took a looks at the “additional options”, and was happy to see that it was NOT automatically prepared take over as my default browser, like some other company might do.Extra points for that, Google.

Moving forward I was told that I had to close my current browser Firefox, and then I instantly completed the bookmark importation process and opened up a pretty blank looking homepage.

A little bit of investigation and poking around a few webpages and seems that my bookmarks did not import. I’m not sure why, but nothing came over from Firefox. My bookmarks were empty.

Looking in the options of the browser, I see no way to manually import them either I’ve now found the bookmark import feature, so I’ll have to try again. Am I completely out of luck?

To be honest, I’m busy and don’t have the time to for its investigate it further right now, and for another thing, it didn’t import my passwords either, and I have work to do so I really can’t play around.

Perhaps over the weekend and I’ll get a chance to play with it more, but in the meantime, I just wanted to write this post quickly, and say farewell to Microsoft. It’s been fun at times, and frustrating at other times, but the race to control your desktop is really on now.

Google Suggest has been around for quite awhile now, but at the moment I’m noticing it take effect on the regular Google homepage.

Basically, you just begin type in something, and Google will pre-fill beneath your text, trying to guess what you’re looking for, showing you related searches, and showing you the number of results it will find.

I’ve only seen it before by going through Google labs, here at this page

A moment ago I did a search for something, and the search box popped down to bring me suggestions like this, when I begin to type “Internet marketing” -

Is anyone else seeing that?

It’s taking place whether or not I am logged into my Google account…

This week, Microsoft announced the launch of “Live Mesh” which is going to be their answer to the ultimate computer-nirvana goal of accessing everything you have, from anywhere you may be.

Your files, email, pictures, documents, music, and basically your whole life, can be instantly accessible from anywhere you happen to be, as long as you have an internet connection.

There are already people doing this with other programs, but Microsoft sees another revenue opportunity, so the’tve launched the Microsoft Mesh website, and sent out some private invitations. Here’s a first look at Mesh by a brave pioneer.

The first thing I thought when I heard this was, “what marketing genius thought up that name?” Can’t you hear the inevitable jokes about people blaming lost information and missed appointments etc. on their “Microsoft Mess”?

The second thing I thought was, “Why would I put even more opportunity for frustration into Microsoft’s hands” ? Personally, if I were to get an invitation to this program, I’m afraid it’s one I would have to decline.

Time after time Microsoft has frustrated us all,  in my case most recently with the incredibly stupid office 2007.   The last thing I would ever want to do is to put even more reliance on the Microsoft operating system or any of their software.

Yes Microsoft was really the innovator that brought computers to the world, but because they were the only kid on the block, they’ve maintained an arrogant indifference to what users have complained about.

For years we haven’t been screaming for more features, we have been screaming for the existing stuff to just work the way it’s supposed to, for crying out loud!

(Did you ever wonder how virus and spyware prevention could NOT be an integral part of the Microsoft operating system? It’s because we let them, and because we had no other choice.)

“Computing from the cloud” means being able to access all of your data in all of your files no matter where you are, as long as you have an Internet connection.  Putting all of this responsibility into Microsofts hands seems like it would be a foolish choice on my part.

I have tried to give myself as much versatility as possible, and through a redundant series of file and document backups, I’m not only able to get back up quickly after disastrous computer crashes (link) but I’m also able to work efficiently from wherever I may be located.

I carry a small portable hard drive of 250 gigs in my laptop case, and I synch it nightly with my office documents folder.

However, that’s not computing from the cloud, and in my case, I’m still in the stone age. When I get back to my office, any changes I may have made to certain documents must be transferred.

Since I still use Outlook in a POP3 setup, any mail I have responded to or not consciously saved for my other PC will not appear at work until I synch things up again with a cable, exporting my sent items folder.

If I were really “computing from the cloud”, I could borrow anyone’s laptop and login somewhere that everything is available. Cloud computing means that no matter where you are, all of your documents, your files, your folders, and someday even your software applications will be accessible wherever you are.

On May 27th, Scott Hanselman will be presenting about cloud computing at the Oregon Computer Consultants Association meeting, which is free and open to the public (You should come).

When we originally discussed organizing a “cloud computing” program, Scott Hanselman came to mind because we knew from an earlier presentation that he had taken his whole family off of Microsoft Office, and put them into Google docs and GMail.

Now however, Scott works at Microsoft, so it will be interesting to see if he’s still an open-source proponent, or if he’s planning t oplace his family into Microsoft Mesh.

Personally, I’m looking forward to the day when I can REALLY be computing from the cloud, and before the end of the summer I intend to have a good handle on Amazon’s web services, and I’ll have a laptop installed with the gOS operating system, exclusively using word processor, spread sheets and presentation software from  Google Docs, I’ll use Google Calendar for all of my appointments, I’ll use the Firefox web browser, and not much else.  As soon as I can have a compatible Android phone,  then I’ll be pretty much done with Microsoft products.

Why don’t I fear placing all of my valuable data in Google’s hands, like I do with Microsoft?  Well, think for a minute… when is the last time you did something at a Google property that failed to work, or caused you to lose time or data?   Exactly.