Image Credit Melesat.com

Blogging is far more complicated than most bloggers realize. The more you learn, the more you realize what you don’t know yet – and the best way to find out what isn’t clear in your mind is to try to answer a question like this one from self-publishing blogger Ivin Viljoen:

“Which is more important: Alexa rating or PageRank?”

I said, “important for WHAT”? Then he added, “for making money”. OK, then. Which one is more important for making money – and should we care?

It is true that many people judge the importance of your blog by your Google PageRank – including advertisers. So, yes, PageRank is an IMAGE thing, but it does not always affect how much traffic you get.  Which would you rather have? More traffic and NO PageRank or a higher PageRank and less traffic?

Google sometimes takes away PageRank
but doesn’t take away any search engine positions or traffic.

Other times they take away both.

Advertisers also sometimes look at Alexa ratings – again, to see how popular your blog is and possibly see in a limited way what keywords are bringing you traffic. He didn’t ask how important is Compete traffic, but he could have. Isn’t how much traffic you have what advertisers really want to know?

What they SHOULD want to know is
what percentage of YOUR traffic is interested in what they have to offer.

The problem with all of these numbers is that they are not accurate. While they can be used as guidelines and they can affect what advertisers may be willing to pay you, each one individually is not critical to making money overall.

Some believe there is a Google PageRank Alexa Connection. Mike D’Agostino wrote about that way back in 2006 on his Highly Structured site.  He offers some interesting insights into what the numbers mean.

No comments there which is too bad because this blog is an example of very low Alexa Rating and low PageRank which he was not seeing back then – or at least had not come across yet.

You can read answers from other bloggers to this question in posts like PageRank or Alexa Rank? Which One is More Important? but the bottom line is to focus on quality content and reaching a specific target audience – ideally a geo-targeted audience.

It is beneficial for bloggers to write reviews for each other on sites like Alexa and Technorati.  If you don’t have your blog listed there you’re missing out on traffic and influence and a great source for advertiser inquiries.

What advertisers may not realize is social media influence and the amount of interaction in blogs is growing in importance. I will be writing a guest post that explains why and how that relates to SEO for the Stay on Search SEO blog. This is important to understand so I hope you’ll watch for it there.

Google is not your friend
In fact, you are not even Google’s customer.
You are the PRODUCT Google sells to its customers.

When I saw the image below in a ppc training blog post warning lead generation advertisers of what is to come I had to share it with my readers.

I encourage anyone who relies on organic or paid AdWords traffic to make the time to read that excellent post and subscribe to and follow @theppcblog on Twitter.

This image is for all those who still insist that Google has the best search results. I ask you to look at the image below and then answer the question below it.

Do you suppose the income from promoted listings might affect what Google chooses to display above the fold and on most of the first page?

“Are you STILL sure Google provides the best results?”

Almost all of the first page in that example is advertising. While not all searches have that many promoted listings, it is likely that many more will over time. Do you honestly believe money will not affect which results Google shows?

While the blogger who created that image was writing about lead generation, the search it shows is for san francisco dentists – not a business that most would think of when we think about lead generation.

Organic results like those affect many small businesses.

I would love to hear from my readers about every alternative search engine they’re using. Do me a huge favor and leave a comment with a link to any post you like (yours or someone else’s) about alternative search engines or link(s) to the search engines you use.

It is up to us to find the best search engines and share that information with our friends, family, co-workers, readers and followers.

Yesterday I offered a Make YOUR Business Memorable Memorial Day Giveaway Marathon DO IT NOW Session so that one fortunate small business could benefit from everything in my Small Business Internet Marketing Starter Package and then some.

The other benefit:

Their business will be featured in
multiple Case Studies and
receive links from other blogs
I publish on showing
before and after results.

I should have known a fellow blogger like Kelli would be the most enthusiastic when it came to what I offer because she is much further along in understanding how to promote yourself online.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I’ve decided to do TWO giveaways because…

By working with Kelli to promote her new best deals blog (Follow her new Twitter account @Deals3BD) I can demonstrate to bloggers how they can collaborate with two to four bloggers in their niche and push ALL their blogs to the top. Some very interesting Case Studies and before and after stats will come from that project.

While I am excited about that too, my intention was to show small businesses how much getting their free advertising in Local Search Directories, having them featured in blog posts, and teaching them how to effectively grow and use Twitter can benefit them.

WANTED: At least one small business to feature in Case Studies!

I would love to write a compelling story here about why what I do works – but the problem is that every business owner is starting from a different level of experience. It is simply not possible to explain what I do and while I’m happy to teach them if the want to know – success does NOT require understanding 99% of what I can do for them.

Instead of me teaching them how…
…how about me just getting it done!

How much research and how many ebooks, courses, blog posts have we all seen? Have we implemented everything we’ve read? NO! Why? Either we don’t know how and really have no interest in learning how OR we don’t have the time. I have come to realize for many things I do not want someone to teach me how, or to take a course – no matter how good it is. I just want what is important DONE already.

And I want it done by the best – optimized and effective.
Yesterday – or at least TODAY – not next week, month or year.

So let’s get TUIT. If you’re a small business that wants to see results and is ready to get started immediately, leave a comment. Since I know news doesn’t spread as fast in small business circles there is no deadline. I’ll pick one business by next Monday, but if you have a great business and are enthusiastic about making this happen I might pick you too!  What do you have to lose?

Be sure to read this “too hot to handle” guest post by Gabriella Sannino, Owner/Operator, partner, Marketing Consultant, Head of Business Development and senior SEO Copywriting strategist at Level343. Follow her on Twitter @SEOCopy and @Level343.

NYT: Google's New SEO Bulldog?

Google algorithms, paid links, shady SEO services – these things used to make the online pages of such places as Search Engine Land, Search Engine Roundtable and, more recently Search News Central. In other words, not mainstream, national news for the most part. Why? Because nobody really cared except us SEO professionals and maybe some site owners.

Over the last year, however, SEO (or some forms of it) have hit the main stream in waves, thanks to the New York Times. Go, go, NYT…

November 2010, the New York Times released a long article by David Segal about Vitaly Borker, bad man of the Internet. Owner of Decormyeyes, Mr. Borker threatened a customer with sexual harassment, sent menacing emails and sent her a photograph of her apartment building.

I can see why this is worth reporting in a national newspaper as a warning to other individuals who might be buying online. I can see the reason why NYT published the story about Google altering its algorithms. Especially when they could correctly report that, “The change was prompted by an article in The New York Times on Sunday about Vitaly Borker, a Brooklyn-based online seller of eyeglasses.”

I can even see why they reported about his subsequent arrest. The man seems to be a maniac. However, he was smart enough to find a loophole in Google’s algorithm and exploit it through – of all things – customer complaints. Here, the NYT plays the hero, saves the damsel in distress and does away with the bad guy. It was good news; it faded from the front page and disappeared.

Now, I’m not sure if they just got a huge boost of traffic from the post or what, but somehow they seem to have decided they’re Google’s new SEO bulldog.

In February of this year, Segal came back with an expose about the “dirty little secrets” of search. It seems somebody just happened to notice that JCPenney was beating out other major players in search for a lot of terms. Segal writes, “But Google’s (emphasis is mine) stated goal is to sift through every corner of the Internet and find the most important, relevant Web sites.”

He talks about black hat optimization, calling it a “dark art”. He warns that “trafficking” in these dark arts “risks the wrath of Google”. He describes a black hat link builder who was interviewed for the story, making the link builder sound like someone out a spy movie. In all this crap disguised as investigative reporting, Segal asks, just once, if maybe Google might have willingly gamed their own system to help one of its largest advertisers.

The Wall Street Journal grabs on to someone outing Overstock in a Webmaster World Forum and reports it. The difference between the WSJ article and the NYT articles is the big “S” word: sensationalism. WSJ reporter, Amir Efrati, keeps to the facts. David Segal of NYT makes SEO, especially black hat SEO, sound like a threat to national security.

Now, for the most part, I’ve just growled, shrugged and gone on. I mean, we don’t deal in paid links, we’re considered a “white hat” SEO company, and this stuff doesn’t affect our clients. – And then the NYT pops up again with a search for Mother’s Day flowers.

Get Off the High Horse

Really? Again, the NYT shoves a bunch of links in Google’s face. Somebody, somehow, had enough time to get a list of 6,000 back links for sites like Teleflora, FTD, 1800Flowers and ProFlowers. Some unnamed Internet marketing experts said these companies are using strategies that violate Google’s guidelines.

Like a good little bulldog, the NYT brings a package of supposed goodies to Google. Google looks the package over and says, “Well, no – these links don’t have a significant impact.” In other words, this isn’t a package of goodies; it’s a package of crap.

That should have been enough to drop it, right? Google says there’s no story. However, Segal rewords the Google quote to say, well yeah, these companies are trying to game the system, but, since Google’s gotten better, the “Internet subterfuge” failed – and then proceeds to go further into all this great, helpful-to-the-world information. All in a national newspaper, mind you.

Failure to Report

What the NYT is failing to talk about, and failing to write about, is that people in every industry will exploit a given loop hole. What they aren’t sharing is the fact that Google’s algorithms have loopholes. They aren’t talking about the fact that the search engine algorithms are imperfect.

Is Google trying to up their search quality? Yes. Have they succeeded? Ummm… no. So when is the NYT going to start reporting about that? Hmmm?

Take, for instance, the fallout of the Panda update. I’m not talking about the sites that lost major traffic. I’m talking the actual search results. Take, for instance, a post written over at Web Pro News, which points out that “quality results” are relative. Read the article, and then tell me how eHow can be more authoritative than say, the National Cancer Institute on a search for “level 4 brain cancer”?

Or how about source attribution? What does it say about the search results when you can’t even rank number one for your own content? So, we’re supposed to be good little girls and boys, pushing out this hand crafted, original, interesting content? In the meantime, Google’s promoting content scrapper sites; you know, the ones that steal your fresh, interesting content and make it their own?

When did you, the New York Times, or you, the idiot who decided due diligence outings were the ‘in thing’, get officially designated as Google’s little dog? Not even a cool dog, like German Shepherds, but annoying, mangy little ankle biters.

All this outing and so-called in depth reporting does is give the search marketing industry a bad reputation. Of course, when you have a leash around your neck as pretty as the one Google gives you, who cares that you’re somebody’s little animal… right?

Be sure to scroll down to the many resources and tips from top SEOs on how to survive Panda, improve your site and regain some of your traffic.

Long term be sure you understand that Google Favors Big Brands and how that will impact your business.

Click image for Panda Update Survival Tips

All of the sites mentioned below are on the Numbers Crunchers list of the most affected domains published by SearchEngineLand.

If your site is on that list and not mentioned below, let me know in the comments and I will add it.

If your business was affected you are encouraged to leave a comment.

GOOGLE FARMER UPDATE MOST AFFECTED:

UPDATE March 1, 2011: The types of sites most affected by Google Farmer Update are:

• Article directories including Wisegeek, EzineArticles, Hubpages, Squidoo, articlesbase, CBS’s Bnet findarticles, etc.
• Competitors to Google Shopping such as TheFind, ShopWiki, BizRate, Buzzillions, Shopping.com, Kaboodle, DigitalTrends, TestFreaks, GaltTech.
• Competitors to Google Maps / Google Places that are Local Search Directories such as Merchant Circle, InsiderPages, American Towns, Manta, CitiTownInfo.
• Competitors to Google Maps / Google Places that are travel related sites include Roadside America, TravelPod, Trails.com, and MyTravelGuide.
• Answers sites including do it yourself sites such as fixya, lovetoknow, howtodothings, doityourself, answerbag.

I argue that many of these sites have great added value for users and ARE NOT “thin on content”. More details on competitors to Google Shopping and Google Maps below.

While the Google update (that occurred last Thursday, February 24, 2011) has been dubbed the “Farmer Update” because the target was supposedly content farms, the list of Sistrix’ top 100 losers includes many who are direct Google Competitors.

GOOGLE SLAPPED GOOGLE COMPETITORS:

Glancing through the tables of Sistrix data, I picked out this incomplete list of sites affected and grouped them by type. No doubt I missed a few and many similar sites will be affected.

Many are competitors to Google Maps (because they offer maps or business listings or travel information). Sites on the lists published by Sistrix and Search Engine Land of most affected sites including Merchant Circle, American Towns, Manta (business listings), InsiderPages (Local Business Listings), CitiTownInfo.com, and you could also travel sites include Roadside America, TravelPod, Trails.com, and MyTravelGuide.

Google Shopping competitors Google-slapped by the Farmer Update include TheFind, BizRate, ShopWiki, Buzzilions, Shopping.com, Kaboodle, Buzzillions, DigitalTrends, TestFreaks, GaltTech (one of the oldest sites on the Internet) – all shopping comparison or review sites that make it easy to find out who carries a specific product and compare prices.

I know many still haven’t wrapped their minds around why it is bad to have only ONE source for anything, why I believe Google IS Evil, or why I keep warning about the dangers of Google Favoring Brands and  Google’s Monopoly, so here is an example.

While TheFind lists 4,401 stores with 138,507 products matching a search for business card holders, Google Shopping suggests only the five stores shown in the screen capture to the right of this text: Amazon, eBags, Buy.com Walmart and Office Depot.

When you click More they offer a total of twenty stores (fifteen additional).  Something else I find interesting:

Google recently went after Overstock’s organic listings but they’re featuring them in Google Product search?

What if you were on Google Product Search and wanted to see any of those thousands of other small stores that sell business card holders?

Even though these other sellers DO list their products on Google Shopping, Google doesn’t choose to show them to us. You would have to know the name of the store and search on it specifically.

When I searched for +”business card holders” +”Executive Gift Shoppe” – a small store whose product feed I am familiar with – Google returns only THREE of their business card holders.  I changed the search to +card +”Executive Gift Shoppe” and got 403 results.

So Google can broad match ppc ads for the phrase business card holder in AdWords but CHOOSES to only show three of the roughly 264 business card holders listed in that store’s feed.

Worse yet, I specifically searched for that one store, but Google showed me 403 results but that store only has about 264 business cards. That means Google probably showed me 139 results from OTHER stores (I didn’t count them manually) even though that store had exactly the same item in stock! Here is a screen capture of one of them:

Click the image to see full size - note the last product offered by Google Shopping is for New and Blue

Executive Gift Shoppe carries that same business card holder for $40.50 – $3.70 cheaper. So why didn’t Google Shopping show me what I specifically asked for in the store I specified? It isn’t because it isn’t there. When I search for that specific product name on Google there it is:

The first product listed on this page is THE EXACT product Google showed me in another store even though I searched specifically for that type of product in Executive Gift Shoppe's store.

TheFind shows two other small stores selling that exact item. Neither of those comes up in a search for their business name on Google Shopping. SO, if Google causes TheFind to disappear from the search results, we don’t know about them to go to their site directly, and we ONLY had Google Shopping, we would not see the item in the store I specifically searched on nor the two other small stores that sell it.

We would ONLY see what Google chooses to show us.

This is simply unacceptable for shoppers and devastating for small businesses. If Sistrix is correct and TheFind lost 83% in this farmer update that could equate to a drop of 83% in their income. (Exactly how much would depend on which products got dropped, the profit margins or commissions on each product -TheFind participates in affiliate programs – and the conversion rates per project.)

No matter what the exact percentages end up being, what business can survive a massive drop in sales?

THIS IS THE FUTURE GOOGLE has planned for Small Businesses!

Are we going to let them further destroy our economy or are we going to wake up in time to save small local and online businesses?  I have explained how in many posts here including these:

GOOGLE PANDA INFOGRAPHICS:

• NEW: Stay on Search Google Panda Algorithmic Update Infographic
• Cognitive SEO Infographic: What in the Name of Google is a Panda Infographic

Google Farmer Update Advice:

• Write reviews for your favorite businesses: Where to Review Businesses.
• Why Marketing is NOT Evil – includes stats and more details on why our economy is sliding and how Word of Mouth can improve our standard of living.
• What Caused the Great Depression is Happening NOW – includes many exceptional links to everything you need to know about our economic challenges.
• Priorities for Small Business Internet Marketing – offer these services or share this post with business owners.
• Techland on the Google Farmer Update

GOOGLE FARMER ADVICE:

• NEW: How CMOs Can Survive a Google Panda Attack
• Unique insights from @RobdWoods on Recovering from Panda
• Kristi Hines on Stay on Search ~ Is Article Marketing Still Effective?
• Search Engine Journal ~ Farmer Update Harmed Co-Dependent Site Owners
• Adotas ~ Google Breaks Up with Content Farms and WHOA! Google’s Farmer Update Helped eHow
• The Role Manual Reviews Played in the Farmer Algo Update
• Google Forecloses on Content Farms with Google Farmer Algorithm Update
• Google Best Weapon: Fear by Example

GOOGLE FARMER OPINIONS:

• Is the Google Panda Update Fair?

After that we could use some comic relief. I offer here a Matt Cutts video parody Google on Brands followed by AdWords Scam Ads created by Aaron Wall at SEOBook:

I hope those reading this will leave their input in the comments – and don’t forget my related posts on why I believe Google IS Evil, why I keep warning about the dangers of Google Favoring Brands and  Google’s Monopoly.

P.S. Any theories why they would hit Technorati? (On theSystix Google Farmer Update table published by SearchEngineLand.)

Related articles

• Farmer Update Update (localseoguide.com)
• Number Crunchers: Who Lost In Google’s “Farmer” Algorithm Change? (searchengineland.com)
• Google Kills eHow Competitors, eHow Rankings Up (seobook.com)
• Farmer Update: Target was SITES not content (blindfiveyearold.com)

Rank Checker

When I found these two tools, benchmarking where any business ranks in the search engines and how their search engine positions improve over time became really simple.

Once you know what your important keyword phrases are, there are very easy ways to track your progress at attaining first page search positions for them. I explained how to do that in my building-traffic post.

Go to SEOBook Tools and download the free SEOBook Toolbar. Don’t bother trying to figure out which tools to use right now. Just download the toolbar because everything I will be sharing in the future is already in it.

The first thing to start using is the Search Engine Ranking Checker built into it. When you have the toolbar installed look for the the red and blue red icon (shown above in this post) between the word “Competition” and the big red X. That is the Rank Checker.

It is really easy to set up and use. Just click on it, type in your domain (you don’t need the http:// or the www), and type in your keywords. You can add multiple keywords too. When you do you have to enter your domain name again (at least in this current version).

Save what you created with a unique name. I use the domain name or the site or company name and what that list is if I have more than one for that company.  Any time you want to check the positions you can simply click on the icon, open your saved presets and click start.

For more details and another how-to on using Rank Checker read How to Check Your Search Engine Rankings.

Maze Core

I also recommend you get the free version of Mazecore and plug your main website and keywords into it. That sends you updates and graphs your progress.I wrote about Mazecore and did some screen captures in my post about backlinks.

The graphs they provide make it easy to see your positions over time and gain insights into how what you are doing affects your search engine positions.

If you have multiple domains you can upgrade to track 5 for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year (two months free) or 10 for $14.99 or $149.99 a year.

Those new to Search Engine Optimization often ask what are serps so I am including this definition for them:

Short for search engine results page, the Web page that a search engine returns with the results of its search.

Now might be a good time for me to share that I believe SEO is good. It is simply making it easier for Internet users to find what they are seeking – and that improves results for searchers and grows business for the owners of the Web sites – whether they be bloggers or small businesses.

BENCHMARKING SEO

• Path Interactive – (Twitter) – Projecting Results from SEO: Benchmarking SEO Keywords
• Sam Tilston SEO Blog – (Twitter) – The Top 100 SEO and SEM Resources

Related articles by Zemanta

• Instantly Acquire 76 High Quality Incoming Links (growmap.com)
• Success IS a Numbers Game (growmap.com)
• Proving SEO factors as facts or myths… (chriscalitz.com)
• How to Market your Small Business with your Blog (marketersdaily.com)

Just today Chris Crum of WebProNews asked Do You Respect DMOZ after 11 years? The Official Happy Birthday DMOZ announced by AOL is June 8, 2009. Although DMOZ was once a quality directory, the reason for their declining favor can be summed up in one word: attitude. That attitude comes through clearly in their R-E-S-P-E-C-T- for DMOZ post and the responses to comments there.

DMOZ IGNORES REQUESTS:

“I saw a definition on the Alternate Webmaster Glossary (http://www.experienced-people.co.uk/1099-webmaster-glossary/) of ODP: That place where you submit a site and forget about it. (And they forget about it too). That’s what webmasters think of the ODP.”~ Will in comments in that DMOZ respect post mentioned above~

DMOZ ATTITUDE

According to DMOZ, it is always YOUR fault if you don’t get listed because you obviously did not follow their rules. You must have made a mistake. You just aren’t “good enough”. While I am certain they do get many submissions that are poor, using their rules as an excuse to reject or ignore quality sites is unwise at best and a major cause for their impending demise at worst.

BECOME A DMOZ EDITOR

Any visit to DMOZ makes it obvious there is a shortage of editors. There is a very good reason for that. Many suggest becoming a DMOZ editor is one way to finally get that elusive DMOZ listing you desire. Many claim that doesn’t work:

DMOZ rejects new editors without explanation and rarely responds or adds new websites submitted by users to categories. ~ Comment from Jeff Reason ~

I wanted to give DMOZ a fair test so I applied to become an editor. Apparently I am not talented enough to volunteer my time as the application was declined. I did definitely disclose all Web sites I am involved with so that isn’t the issue. If you still want to give it a try read The Secret to Getting Listed at DMOZ and Submitting a Successful DMOZ application.

While we originally did not know whether the charges of corruption at DMOZ were accurate; they certainly are abundant. It is really hard to argue against that accusation given what happened to ShoeMoney. Not only is ShoeMoney still not listed there are only 23 listings in the Affiliate Weblogs category where he once appeared. The PleasantonWebDesignBlog post DMOZ is Corrupt and the comments in it are representative of many we’ve read elsewhere. Here are even more concerns about DMOZ Editors.

Chris Crum at WebProNews asks Does Dmoz Still Have a Place in Search?  They seem to be telling us they don’t. After thorough research we have concluded that although a DMOZ link is still considered valuable, DMOZ is largely a waste of time. Apply once carefully following their rules if you wish and then, as Will suggested, forget about them.

QUALITY SITES DMOZ IGNORED or REJECTED:

• Trying to get in DMOZ? More Evidence of DMOZ Corruption

Related articles by Zemanta

• Want Your Listing to be Approved in DMOZ? Use Real Titles (seroundtable.com)
• Want to Get Listed in DMOZ? Become an Editor (mt-soft.com.ar)

Every time I take a peek into the Web analytics accounts for a blog or especially an online store I see something I consider to be VERY frightening! The percentage of traffic and sales being derived from traffic from only one source is frequently 50-70+%!

Can you imagine what would happen to your blog or business if your traffic and sales suddenly dropped by 50-70%!

Don’t think it can happen? It does all the time. The most famous blogger Darren Rowse of ProBlogger and TwiTip wrote an excellent post about his own experience of losing two-thirds of his traffic and income. He has covered this subject several times:

• What Should You Do If Your Google Ranking Falls and You Lose All Your Traffic? (Nov. 29 2006)
• What To Do When Your Google Traffic Disappears (Nov 15, 2005)
• Google’s Christmas Present – OUCH! (Dec 20, 2004)
• Google’s Update Chaos Continues (Dec 28, 2004)

Do you notice anything about the dates of these posts? Remember in the post just prior to this that I mentioned pay per click bid prices having artificially high minimums? Those coincide with organic listings swinging wildly but mostly dropping. (Some have to go up for others to go down.)

If your business normally sees a major increase in sales – or even makes the majority of sales – during the holiday shopping season what would YOU do if your traffic dropped in the middle of the optimum sales period because your organic listings suddenly dropped or completely disappeared from the first page of the SERPS?

How long have I been warning about the dangers of having all your traffic and sales coming from the same source? Have you done anything about it yet?

Still not convinced? There are others who have recognized how dangerous this is. The featured home page discussion at WebmasterWorld (Mar 27, 2009) is about Making Your Business SE (Search Engine) Proof.  I know you may be busy blogging or running your online store so you may not see all the uproar whenever there is a new Google Dance.

These issues are not new as this excerpt from Gazumped by Google Florida Update from Nov 25, 2003 indicates (note that the date of this post also coincides with the holiday shopping season):

“Thousands of web pages have been suddenly demoted in the Google search results, primarily on the main commercial search terms for which they targeted their pages to be replaced by other sites who, in the main, referred to the search term obliquely. Several were the main shopping portals or business directories which gave listings for companies who may provide the services requested, many were not. “

Techcrunch has even suggested What An AntiTrust Case Against Google Might Look Like. For several days now I have been searching for specific posts, forums, or pages to illustrate the current state of online sales. I wanted to provide more real life examples from etailers.

With the enormous number of online stores that would seem to be easy to research. Have no Internet retailers asked for input since 2007 when their sales dropped?  Do they not visit forums any more or ask around among their peers? Perhaps that information is not as easily located if the discussions take place on Twitter or other Social Networks or maybe it is not easily found in the indexes?

Whatever the cause I have decided to publish this post as is and hope that those involved in ecommerce will share their stories and experiences in the comments here.

As always, all comments provide dofollow incoming links. We use both KeyWordLuv and CommentLuv and encourage including relevant links in your comments. Akismet may flag your comment but we do rescue all valid comments.

NEW: Add your Twitter user name to any comment here and it will “automagically” appear in every other comment you have ever made in this blog.

LATEST ON GOOGLE SEARCH ALGORITHM:

• Important New Insights with graph and details from Randfish at SEOmoz – How Google’s Ranking Algorithm Has Changed Over Time (Apr 9, 2009)
• SEOBook: Big Brands: Google Brand Promotion: New Search Engine Rankings Place Heavy Emphasis on Branding (Feb 25, 2009) – even though this post is older I have placed it second because it contains so much important detail on how Google has changed and how those changes affect small businesses and blogs.
• SEMReportCard: Breaking News: Google Algorithm Update Places BRANDS at Top of Results for Geo-Targeted Searches (Feb 27, 2009)
• Why Google’s Ranking Factors Have Changed Over Time (Apr 9, 2009)

ONLINE RETAILERS REPORTING TRAFFIC DECLINES:

• Answers.com Reports Traffic Down 28% After Google Algorithm Change (Aug 2. 2007)

GOOGLE DANCES:

• Niche Marketing: Page Rank and Doing the Google Dance (Mar 29, 2009)
• What is the Google Dance (Mar 5, 2009)
• What Happened to My Google Ranking: Explaining the Google Dance – easy version (2004)
• Google Dance Syndrome Strikes Again (Dec 1, 2003)
• WebmasterWorld Forum – Google Rankings Fluctuating Wildly (Aug 2003)
• Coping with GDS: Google Dance Syndrome (Jun 3, 2003)

DEALING WITH DROPPING SEARCH TRAFFIC:

• AimClear – Attainable SEO: Page Strength Versus SERPs Difficulty (Mar 6, 2009)
• AimClear – Universal Search: Optimizing for Blended SERPS (Dec 10, 2008)
• Search Engine Land – How to (Kind of) Buy a #1 Organic Search Ranking on Google (Nov 8, 2007)
• SEOmoz: 90% of the Ratings Factor Lies in These Four Factors (Sep 26,2007)
• Search Engine Guide – The Risk of Over-Reliance on Google (Oct 31, 2006)
• Search Engine Guide – Saving Your Business From Algorithm Shift Part 2 Paid Search Advertising (Jul 18, 2005) – Be sure to read our post on the Dangers of PPC Advertising
• Search Engine Guide – Saving Your Business From Algorithm Shift Part 1; Using Press Releases (Jul 14, 2005)
• Search Engine Guide – Search Engine Algorithm Quandaries (Jul 1, 2005)
• Search Engine Guide – How to Weather Google Algorithm Changes (Jun 22, 2005)

ECOMMERCE PREDICTIONS:

• Bloomberg citing Forrester Research: U.S. Online Sales Grew 11% in First Quarter (Apr 8, 2009)
• Despite Economic Downturn, Outlook for eCommerce in 2009 Still Bright (Mar 10, 2009)
• Online Retail Could Reach $156B in 2009 (Jan 29, 2009)

The above predictions are far different than the results of the Merchant Circle Small Business Economic Stimulus Survey (Feb 25, 2009). The answers to this question are of particular concern:

Month over month, how would you say sales and revenue for your local business have changed?

Severe Decline        31.5% (3,411)
Moderate Decline    41.6% (4,509)
No Change              13.6%  (1,471)
Moderate increase   12.3% (1,331)
Strong Increase         1.6%    (178)

Total survey respondents who answered that their sales and revenue had declined: 73.1%

Survey participants who answered this question  10,830
Number who skipped this question   49

Total respondents  10,879

NOTE: The question specifically asks about LOCAL business. We have no way of knowing how many of those local businesses are brick and mortar, have ecommerce stores, or operate exclusively online.

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