It was back in late 2009 when we first received word of the new indexing system by Google, aptly named “Google Caffeine”, which had massive promises of being faster, and much more responsive. Apart from the obvious benefits, it was never really made all that clear as to exactly how this new indexing system would benefit the webmaster.

Upon closer inspection, this update offers a little more than a few polishes and code tweaks. It is a complete revamp of the search engine that we both love and hate, that will both benefit the webmaster, and make their job that little bit more difficult. Ready to learn more? Read on…

First things first, Caffeine (as the name suggests) is much faster than the previous version of Google. With speed improvements recorded of under half the time from the previous version, this fits very much in line with Google’s promise to take page load speeds into consideration when ranking sites. As I understand it, the way that they have done this is by reverting from their old system where the index was arranged in stacks or layers, with some layers being more responsive than others, to a new system which analyzes the entire web one small portion at the time, resulting in faster refresh rate of their index.

What this means for the end user is that the information contained within Google’s new index is much more up to date, with new information added to their index “as it happens”. For the webmaster, this is fantastic news, with some (including myself) reporting pages being added to the index in less than five minutes!

Old Google Index Results

Google Caffeine Index Results

Let’s not forget to talk about the overall size of the index. In some tests, the index seems to show increases in size of, anywhere up to 600% for some keywords (see above images). This is most definitely testament to the fact that Google is now capable of indexing several hundreds of thousands of sites in parallel.

So, keeping all of this in mind, what exactly does this update mean for the common webmaster?

Well apart from the fact that the new updated search engine will deliver your results much faster, this means that your job when it comes to SEO is going to be made just that little harder. As Google Caffeine literally will focus on exactly where the activity is in real time, your ability to dominate is going to rely on your ability to be where the action is, and how much care you take when selecting your keywords and effective titles.

Not to say that backlinks building is going out of fashion, what this means is that in order to build up your brand in the search engines, you are going to need to bring your action to where the action is. So, are the traditional backlink sources that we are used to losing their momentum? In all honesty, Google Caffeine is still young to discover whether or not this is a valid claim, however, you can be sure that we will do some back testing to report on this soon.

Any SEO person worth their salt will tell you that one of the best ways to get your content quickly indexed in Google is to submit an XML sitemap through Google’s Webmaster tools… but apart from serving that purpose, what else does Webmaster Tools actually do? Well, as of today, we can say that it does much more than it used to. Google has just announced a new features.

Lets start with the new site dashboard. Graduating from simply giving you information on your keywords standings in Google, they have gone a little further and now offer a side by side comparison of your main keywords, where they rank, and even a click through rate for those keywords.

Since we talk about organic results in Google as being a “free” traffic, this is a new way to look at your keywords performance much in a similar light as what you would treat your AdWords campaigns. Finally, for the savvy SEOer, this should get you asking the right questions. Questions like: How can you craft your titles and descriptions to increase click through?

So what’s else’s new? Next there’s the new “Top Search Queries” function which I think is probably the biggest improvement of them all. In short, it offers an entirely new page that tallies all of your highest performing keywords, where they rank, and gives an analytics style view of the traffic that each keyword is receiving.

You might be wondering “How’s this any different to most of the information Google Analytics provides this already?”. Good question… Although some of the information is similar, we see that the details in Google Webmaster tools to be more focused on treating your rankings like other forms of advertising. Google now gives you conversion information rather than the raw traffic stats. It’s now the best way to track what keywords are converting best in the SERPs… you can even take it a step further and locate those pages that aren’t converting as well, make the appropriate changes and bring in more traffic with no extra offpage link building.

Like anything new that Google provides, there is a level of criticism. People are asking, “Why not include this in Google Analytics?” I am not in a position to answer this but I for one welcome this change as I am used to monitoring my keywords and their performance in Webmaster tools. At the end of the day, I see only the positives from treating keyword performance in the SERPs like any other paid form of online marketing… it’s well overdue that SEOers start placing more emphasis on how we can convert those searches on the SERPs into visitors to our website.

A big thing has been made in the news this week about Facebook surpassing Google as the most viewed website in the US. You can see the figures presented first hand by hitwise here. What are the implications of these findings? How might Facebook be a threat to Google? Can you compare them like for like? How does this affect the world of SEO?

whoa, that was a lot of rhetorical questions right there. Let’s break this down…

The Stats

It appears that the stats don’t really tell the full story.  This is google.com vs facebook.com. The stats don’t include the visits to all the other google suites such as gmail, Google Maps and even Youtube (the 2nd largest search engine in the world).

Google Users vs Facebook Users

One key factor which still separates Google from Facebook is the make-up of their users. Sure Facebook recently surpassed the 400m users worldwide landmark which was some feat. But we must consider the motives for users to be active on these sites. People do not go onto Facebook to actively look for products and buy; they go there to socialize and connect with friends. Google on the other hand, whilst users are generally looking for information, the make-up of users who are actively searching to buy products and services are considerably higher. Furthermore the user experience of Google is unaltered despite this increased commercial intent.

Facebook’s continued growth is heavily dependent on its evolving user interface.  The ease with which facebook surpassed MySpace in the social networking stakes serves as a constant reminder as to the fragility of the business. Having said that, a 400m user base represents a significant network effect.

SEO vs Facebook Advertising

Facebook advertising is still in its infancy and it will certainly grow. Facebook has lent more towards banner advertising. With Google users are actively searching for something, whereas with facebook you need to grab the attention of the user instead and try to distract them.  In Facebook  the demographic targeting is fantastic. But with Google you can effectively have keyword specific advertising (via SEO) in the search results that is incredibly targeted and qualified. What I mean by this can best be explained in an example.

If someone types in “Buy Canon Ixus 60 Camera” you already know exactly what they want and that they are prepared to buy. Another way to think about the difference is in terms of push and pull advertising. When it comes to facebook advertising it is very much push advertising. You’re effectively pushing your advertising on users. SEO is more pull advertising. Your customers are actively looking for you and you are just pulling them towards you.

The Melbourne SEO Journey so far…

As you know by now, we never set out to be one of Australia’s leading seo companies, it kind of just happened. Whilst we reluctantly took on the challenge and some, it was more of a natural progression into something we excelled at than something that was meticulously planned. Nevertheless, our focus to help small and medium sized businesses around Melbourne and Australia wide has been a great success to date.

An SEO company is not purely measured on the number of years SEO experience it has (and we have more than most), but by the passion and drive of their people. We are testament to that. You can meet the Melbourne SEO Services team of SEO experts and also read the full Melbourne SEO story to find out more.

But back to our journey…

As you can imagine the field of search engine optimisation is a super competitive niche that is going to take some time to crack.  Nevertheless, we’ve identified Google Local Listings as a great place to get a foothold in the market right off the bat.

Watch this Video to See How Far We’ve Come in So Little Time

And this is just the beginning…

Here’s a How To Video on Website Selling…

The buying and selling of websites used to be something that you would always proceed with caution with. But the good news is that the buying and selling of websites is back in a big way.  Just this week we wrote a guide to selling a website in 2010. The basic reason for this turnaround is sites such as Flippa that have made it a risk free business practice once more.

It’s time to show you some best practices for website selling. Here’s a case study we made documenting exactly how we sold our first website on Flippa for a great price.

In this post you’ll discover:

- How I sold a small website for $2000 (and you could do the same).
- Is theSEOmethod.com out of date? Melbourne SEO Training Seminar Announced.
- Download these new interviews with SEO experts (free).

1. How I sold a small website for $2000 (and you could do the same).

A few weeks back I heard from great sources (Ed Dale amongst others) that the buying and selling of websites was back… and back in a big way.

As you know we tested 583 domains when developing theSEOmethod.com. These were niche sites that I never had any interest in other than
just for testing purposes. I ended up developing a few of these sites into clickbank products (which are still doing quite well) while the vast majority I’ve done nothing with after the initial testing was complete.

Anyway, as part of my new years resolution I’ve decided to clear out all these projects so I can focus on my new SEO company (www.melbourneSEOservices.com). I thought  what better way to try it out than selling one of my SEO method domains.

So, a few days ago, I listed one of my sites (wrestlingmoves.org) and within a couple of days the action was already heating up. I had over 25 watches and 500+ views. I had 3 different people all contacting me to “buy it now”.

Originally I thought I’d let the auction play out but when I had someone offer $2,000. I decided to take it. Not bad for a first effort! Now I’m not saying this to impress you but to merely impress upon that now is the time to start buying and selling websites.

Here’s a link that shows the auction – I thought you might like to check it out and model what I did.

Click here to see the flippa.com listing.

Sidenote: I’m also looking to start selling off the other 582 domains used in developing theSEOmethod.com. If you’d like to get in early, before I list them on flippa.com, I’m happy to let a few go for as little as $80 – if you buy a group 10.

This is a massive discount when compared to the one I just sold on flippa.com If you’re interested please shoot me an email and I can send you some more details.

2. Is theSEOmethod.com out of date? Melbourne Seminar Announced.

I originally recorded the videos 8 months ago and theSEOmethod.com still works like gangbusters… with that said, over the last 8 months, a lot has changed. In fact, we’ve now evolved our methods even further.

Would you like to see what we’re doing now?

If you’re based in Australia, I’d like to share with you exactly how I’ve made myself, and our clients, millions of dollars online, using nothing but free traffic… and how you can easily do the same. This stuff is not rocket science… anyone can do it.

I’d like to personally invite you to our next SEO workshop – click here to see find out more about our SEO Training Workshop.

Note: if you book now, you’ll get in for less than half price.

3. Download these new interviews with SEO experts (free)

Have you been following along on my blog?

I’ve been sharing some truly amazing interviews with people who are on the cutting edge. Seriously, what these guys don’t know about SEO you could write on the back of a stamp. Best of all, I’m a master at asking the questions you want to have answered… You’ll discover the exact strategies they use to build online businesses from scratch.

Here’s just a couple of the recent ones I’ve posted:

Leslie Rohde is to SEO what Thomas Edison is to the lightbulb. Click here to listen to the Leslie Rohde interview.

Ed Dale needs no introduction so i won’t big him up. He claims to be no SEO hotshot but his marketing strategies are second to none, and ideal for beginners and seasoned marketers alike. Check it out here – Ed Dale Interview.

Anyway, if you enjoyed these insights please subscribe to my blog since there’s many more good interviews to come: www.davidjenyns.com

Please take a moment to check it out since I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you have any ideas or suggestion?

That’s it for now… I’d love to hear from you – in fact, I’ll watch out for your email.

Your SEO Coach,

David Jenyns
Director
MelbourneSEOservices.com

Ps. If you’re in Melbourne this weekend, and you’re going to Ed Dale’s event… I’ll be there. Be sure to come up and say “hi”.

In Google’s ever long quest for domination, Google Social Search has been unleashed. Now, I sense some confusion in a lot of people when it comes to what this means for them. In part, this is going to turn the relevant search engine results upside down. Will SEO still be relevant? Will social media marketing take over from SEO? Who knows, either way, I shall explain exactly what this means in brief format.

Up until now, when a user has searched Google for a keyword or phrase, Google has returned results that are relevant to a user, based on website popularity, relevance, and so on and so forth. What Google Social Search does is quite cool, but is going to take some mapping out by the SEO guys in order to get one in front. Let’s put an example to you…

Let’s say I am searching for information on the iPad in Google. I registered my social media profiles in my Google profile. Not only will this return relevant results to me, it will do something else that is pretty cool. It will also send me relevant results that my friends on social networks are talking about. Imagine Google saying “Here’s what I found in the phone book, but your friends are talking about this! Maybe you should check these out first!”. Let’s not forget to mention that this is built into the Google search engine, so all you need to do is search using Google.

So, what does this mean for SEO? For one, not everyone has an account with Google, so ordinary organic results that are earned through good old fashioned SEO are going to stay, however for those who do have accounts with Google, your edge is going to be your ability to connect with them on their social media profiles. Twitter, YouTube, Picasa, and so on. And this goes down to a little social media marketing, not researching your market (remember, it already exists!), but finding where your market is, where they are talking about their problem, and how they want that problem fixed.

There are plenty of tools that will allow you to do this; one of my favourites is Omgili which allows for a Google style search that also returns relevant conversations that are being held in real time on the internet. This is a great way to catch the conversations in real time, and engage with these people in real time. You can also use Google Alerts for this same purpose, and have messages delivered to your Gmail inbox when new content relating to specific keywords is created online.

With Google Social Search, my philosophy on this is quite simple. You need to find your market, and market your offerings directly to them. Not to say that SEO will disappear, personally I believe that SEO will be around for a long time to come, and will play an important part in winning those people over who are still yet to create their own social media profiles. Here are a few quick tips for those who want to press their message to Social Media:

1.    Create at least 4 social media profiles on Social Media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace (depending on your market type)
2.    Create an automated way of distributing your newly created content to these profiles using a combination of TwitterFeed and Ping.fm
3.    Tweet something compelling at least 4 times per day
4.    Don’t be afraid to touch base directly with your followers (using Twitter reply and direct messaging, etc)

These are only four examples of what can be done in order to engage your followers, and attract others. Remember, with Google Social Search, your followers are going to start seeing the relevant content that you share with them in their search engine results. One of my favourite quotes is that “companies don’t sell a product, people sell a product”, so let me ask you this. Are your followers more inclined to buy from a search engine generated result, or from a related Social Search result?

• Are You Creating Blog Commenting Spam?
• The Simple Way To Increase Your Conversion Rate
• A Simple Search Engine Optimisation Technique To Target The Right Keywords
• Will Social Media Trends Kill SEO?
• Our Gradual Link Building Strategy

Does SEO Have A Future?

There’s been a lot of talk of late that questions whether search engine optimization (SEO for short) will be around in five years time. Matt Cutts, a Google webmaster and someone that appears to be doing a lot of great PR for the behemoth, gives a resounding answer to that question. SEO is constantly changing and becoming more sophisticated as Google becomes more sophisticated, but the basic principle of doing what Google wants you to do to legitimately grow a website, through creating links and garnering attention, remains fundamentally the same.

Making your website loved my Google is the magic formula for SEO and that does not look like fading out any time soon.

Here it from the horses mouth here…

• Are You Creating Blog Commenting Spam?
• The Simple Way To Increase Your Conversion Rate
• A Simple Search Engine Optimisation Technique To Target The Right Keywords
• Will Social Media Trends Kill SEO?
• Our Gradual Link Building Strategy