The Popular Kid In School Still Wins - New Google Ranking Algorithm

February 2009 will forever be an interesting month in the world of SEO. Google
Rolled out an algorithm update to all content in search that essentially perfers
larger brands over smaller niche sites.

Remember that kid in school who was always the most popular kid? On the
Basketball team, a member of every social club, hung out in the most prominent
places and with the most popular people?

Big Brand corporations are much like that attitude. Spending time on things &
places that promote “popularity” much more than ROI or return on investment.
To them, it’s all about “branding”. What’s branding anyway?

According to Dictionary.com

Consumer awareness? So what Google’s saying is… To make something “popular”
by ensuring everyone knows about it. We’ve all seen the mob mentality where,
everyone “knows” about something, so it must be good. This is the mentality
that Google is now using to help rank.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said:

“Brands are the solution, not the problem,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Brands are
how you sort out the cesspool.“

“Brand affinity is clearly hard wired,” he said. “It is so fundamental to human
existence that it’s not going away. It must have a genetic component.”

How does Google Determine a “Brand”

Apparently, some are saying Google harnesses user data from Google
Accounts, Google Analytics, Google AdSense, DoubleClick, Google AdWords,
Google Reader, iGoogle, Feedburner, and Youtube. Yikes!

Others are saying, spend more on adwords, social & viral media campaigns or
link baiting campaigns to appear to have already established a brand or find some
other way like Press to get a ton of people to your sites or talking about your sites.

Everyone Loves David & Goliath Stories…. Little guy
Stomps the big guy in a big way.

So, how does the little guy, who was never very popular in school and never had
any real friends get business online, or does he? Are they destined to be the outcast?

In 1996, the internet finally started making real money for cave dwellers. People
like myself who are not amazingly skilled in the fine art of “social success”. SEO’s
in the begining were just people who knew how to manipulate the mathematical
algorithms that made results pop up to the top.

The “mavericks” loved how corporations would come BEGGING to us on bended
knee just dying for us to reveal what was in our little black bag of SEO magic. What
truly was GOOD about this model of building out the internet was the fact that
corporations were forced to write good content, educate consumers better and
even more so, explain themselves. They had to mention every feature and every
benefit of their products.

Today, Web 2.0 and social media force the nerd out of his cave in to
the light…

To be profitable on the internet while on a budget, you must learn the art of
popularity. You must do some initial research and understand what people want
and ensure that your website has some section that’s giving it to them.

You must find ways to convince people to start talking about you, and of course
to beat the big dawgs, unless Google wakes up from the high school party the
evening before and the hangover wears off… You’ll have to start spending some
adwords dollars on “related” phrases that may not be as profitable for the purpose
of “branding” and making you popular with the girls.

Branding in online marketing isn’t new

Truth is, even the Gurus who seem to be operating small websites with small (in
comparison to Amazon.com or Ebay.com) profit margins are “always” doing
branding. I spoke with David Cheyne at a recent event and he was talking about
how “you have to be in their inbox with all the other Guru’s each week, or they
forget about ya.” He was refering to keeping himself and his name and “Brand”
top of mind for consumers. He mentioned that he’s using his name on everything.

Small Marketer Tips That Effect Google:

* Figure out your brand… Is it your name? (If your marketing to the SOHO market
or some market that requires a person to talk to, or your a consultant that’s perfect)
Or is it your company name that directly relates hopefully to what benefit you offer
(cheapflights.com) or the problem you solve (findmoney.com) as examples.

* Establish your brand on the big sites.
- Create a channel on Youtube
- Create an account on Twitter (Use your brand name)
- Own your brand’s domain so you’ll show up for those searches
- Create a Squidoo Page
- Try to get a profile of yourself & your business on the Wikipedia
- Build a Group or FanPage on Facebook
- Build a Linkedin profile
And every other thing you see HUGE sites doing to create awareness…

But in the mean time, I have to say that I honestly loved Google’s “Don’t be Evil”
strategy of letting popularity & relevance take priority. Brands are essentially able
to in a round-about sort of way purchase the top spots. The whole point of even
having a “Free” system of organic listings is so these large companies can’t buy
their way in at any price. To me, this is what it seems to be. Big brands can easily
Buy their way in by getting enough publicity in a short period of time to amass
good rankings.

Not Cool, Google. Not Cool.

Daniel Deyette
SEM/SEO & Copywriting Expert.
Social/Viral Media consultant
Affordable SEO