The Forge

Google just announced the inclusion of real time search results that include Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and a number of blogs on their results pages.  This news isn’t shocking, as Google was a step behind Bing to tap the real time web and pretty much obligated to take a stab at it.

This is some big news, given that Google is by far the most utilized search engine.  One affected eco-system will be the realm of Search Engine Optimization.  While the old method of SEO primarily targets the ’static web,’ a new brand of Real Time SEO needs to evolve to address the ‘real time web’.

Real Time SEO

SEO is essentially maximizing the potential of a website to be indexed by Google based on a number of factors the algorithm takes into account when ranking sites, including the number of incoming links, title tags, keywords,  updated content, etc.

The Mountain View crew claims that real time search will utilize factors such as “author quality,” “probability of relevance” and “query hotness,” in order to determine which results pop.   These new factors, among others, will be the guiding principles of real time SEO, a process that is sure to be exacted from this point forward.

Sure, the social web – including twitter, facebook, myspace, and blog articles – have been an integral piece of SEO work for some time now. Utilizing social media pathways to provide extended exposure to a website has been important.  However, these efforts have always been somewhat ephemeral in comparison to the bulk of a search engine optimization campaign.  With the advent of Google’s real time web, this is about to change.

Real time search results could bring as much, if not more, traffic to a website than standard indexing on any given day.  This means making a website relevant and fresh through updates will become even more important.  There are sure to be other tactics and strategies that emerge as real time search evolves.  I’ll  be sure to keep an eye out for these results and post the findings.  In the meantime, feel free to let me know your thoughts on the subject!

Researching and choosing your site’s target keywords is the first step to SEO success.   In a sense, keywords are the DNA of your master SEO plan; keywords will be the blueprint of where your site gets indexed and what type of customers are visiting you.   It may seem fairly simple – choose the keywords that best suit your industry.  However, there are several factors that must be considered and compromises that must be taken to target the perfect keywords.  I’d like to briefly analyze what factors should be taken into account when choosing your site’s keywords.

1.  Local or Not: Is your business local or not?  If you are a Napa Valley Winery, it doesn’t make sense to target the single word ‘winery’.  Although ‘Winery’ may have more monthly search traffic than ‘Napa Valley Winery,’ the competition will be much stiffer and the ROI much smaller.  On the flip side, if your website is selling a broader online product, like ‘MMA Shorts’ than it wouldn’t make sense to include a specific location (unless you had a brick and mortar store front you were promoting).

2.  Monthly Search Traffic: You can easily find the monthly search traffic for various keywords using Google’s keyword tool.   Search traffic should be a primary factor in determining which keywords to target.  If you have a super specific product, like ‘eco-friendly puppy treats’ you will probably find out that those specific keywords get nearly zero search traffic.  This probably means you want to broaden your keyword to something that gets more searches, like ‘puppy treats’.

3.  Keyword Connotations: Even after determining the monthly search traffic of your target keywords, be sure to actually search for them on Google to see what results come up.  Certain keywords may have various connotations which you hadn’t previously thought of.   Make sure that the competitors on the 1st page of results are in your industry wheelhouse.

4. Competitors: It never hurts to check out what your competitors on the 1st page of search results for your keywords are doing.  View their website’s page source to see if there is any secret sauce of keyword variations that you haven’t thought of yet.

5.  The SEO Compromise: When all is said and done, choosing the keywords that will give your website the best traffic is all about compromise.  If you aim too high at broad keywords that are incredibly competitive, the chances are you won’t break ground on them for quite a while (if ever).  If you aim too low at super-specific keywords that have nearly no traffic, you will likely see very little return on your SEO efforts. The key is finding the compromise in keywords that will provide your business the perfect amount of traffic meshed with the ideal type of traffic.

Over the past several years, cell phones have advanced from mere portable calling devices to all-in-one mini computers.  The iPhone’s launch marked a transition from our past of using mobile phones primarily for voice, to utilizing them as full-fledged internet surfin’, app. toutin’ devices.

Today, hype is starting to build around the new Android / Verizon lovechild named ‘Droid’.  Droid is being advertised with the following slogan:  “Don’t you wish you had a Robot Sidekick that moved at light speed, could get you out of any problem, and lived in your pocket?”

Clearly Verizon is marketing to the mass of Star Wars fans that have always dreamed of having their own R2-D2 buddy.  (In fact, Verizon is even utilizing Lucas Film’s trademark on the word ‘Droid’.)  Despite the nifty Star Wars tie in, we all know that the Droid’s abilities won’t be able to live up to R2-D2’s intuitive interpersonal skills, such as shocking Ewoks and warning Luke of incoming Tie Fighters.

It’s going to be a while before mobile device A.I. catches up to George Lucas’ imagination.   However, there are several future phone features that we will see in the next few years that should bring us that much closer to having our own ‘Robot Sidekick’.

Augmented Reality 2.0: We already have apps like Layar and Yelp’s iPhone App. which lets you pull up anything from Wikipedia articles to restaurant reviews by pointing your phone in the direction of the object of interest. This stuff’s only gonna get better.  I suspect lightweight glasses with virtual information displays will become as big as iPod earbuds.   Think Terminator’s Termo-Vision, only with less data on killing people.

Also, social augmented reality that ties in Social Networking data and visual recognition software seems a logical next step.  Imagine pointing your phone at that gal in the bar only to find out she’s a friend of a friend and also can’t wait for the 2013 release of Episode 7.  Kinda creepy though.

Language Translation: Imagine traveling around the world and speaking every language you encounter.   With the progression of current language translation and voice recognition software, this doesn’t seem very far off as a mobile application.  Any incoming speech will be instantly translated to your default native tongue and relayed to you through an ear bud.

The output is harder, and might be a bit culturally sensitive.   Speak into your mouthpiece and have the phone output the audio translation in a designated language.   Many cultures could see a ‘robot’ speaking to them as somewhat offensive, however, it could also be a great way to get out of a jam.  The real question: will the app. be able to translate Wookie and Elvish?

Holograms / Projector Displays

When will we get to re-enact the ‘Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re our only hope,’ scene with a holographic text to friends?   LG expects to have a projector installed on some phones by 2010.  While it’s not quite a hologram, this could be a great way to take us away from squinting at tiny screens all the time.

Here’s to Google Docs

Open Collaboration

At your finger tips

One thing you should know about the Insight Forge team here in San Francisco: we’re all pretty big Google Document devotees.  We utilize Google Docs for pretty much everything – idea brainstorms, camping trip supply lists , brownie recipes, time spreadsheets, you name it.

If you own a small business, Google documents provides a forum for you to collaborate in real time between team members or directly with your clients.   For example, if you’re a chef and want to send a revised menu out to your staff, a Google Document would be the perfect place to express your thoughts.  You could add notes, and they could respond with questions to prepare for the menu’s release.

Most of the hitches we’ve encountered have to do with formatting between Google Docs and MS Word or MS Excel.   In an ideal world we would never need to use Word or Excel, and all of our writing could take place on Docs.

Google just released a new feature that allows complete folders to be shared, each containing multiple documents and spreadsheet under one umbrella.  This further promotes the easy collaboration and quick access that Google Documents excels at (no pun intended).

So… cheers to Google Docs!

We recently implemented a basic SEO campaign for our local Inner Sunset Kickboxing & Jiu Jitsu hotspot, Gym 445.   Gym 445 is a great place to get whipped into shape as well as learn a variety of martial arts, from muay thai kickboxing to brazilian jiu jitsu and MMA.  Head trainers Edge Brown, Bebe Etzler and Bret Bergmark are top notch.

Even though the monthly keyword traffic for ’san francisco kickboxing’ isn’t extraordinary, it is extra relevant.  In fact, when I first moved to the Inner Sunset, I initiated my search for a kickboxing gym by Googling those very words: ‘San Francisco Kickboxing.’  Sure, you get a bunch of yelp reviews, but I also often find myself clicking through the 1st and 2nd page results to see what else might be out there.

On our initial keword research it was very interesting to take a survey of the competitors for keywords like ‘San Francisco Kickboxing.’ Although many of the results were relevant for various obscure martial arts, they weren’t straight kickboxing gyms.

I think the same problem might occur for many other local establishments that aren’t utilizing the basics of SEO.  Almost every local business realizes that they need a website presence, but many still are overlooking SEO.  If more jump on board, hopefully some of those Google results will shape up too.