Instead of always returning standard search results as indexed within Google – the search giant now displays a total of 9 additional places that a searcher (aka prospective client) can find your company.

Nine!

Just when you thought that SEO was a snap and all you had to do was throw a few hundred keywords up on your firm’s home page – the game is suddenly changed.

Actually the game has been changing for years. Blogs have emerged as relevant research tools. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have enabled our customers to reach out to their friends for recommendations as opposed to relying upon raw searches through Google or other easily gamed Internet search engines.

Is there a way for you to keep up with all these changes? I think so – and it’s been right in front of your nose all along.

Here’s The 10 Ways Your Customers Can Now Search Google

1. Traditional search
2. News
3. Blogs
4. Images
5. Videos
6. Maps
7. Shopping
8. Books
9. Updates (social media such as Twitter)
10. Discussions

Most of these different search venues have always been available to Google searchers. The re-design of Google’s search layout now emphasizes them making them more valuable than before.

Will customers use a news or blog search to research their purchase decisions?

Yes. And they’d already doing this now – just not in as great a number as they will in the future.

What does this mean to your company’s search engine optimization efforts?

Welcome To The Land of Quality Content = Good SEO

For companies who have always focussed on creating great useful content online across multiple types of media (organic keywords, blogs, images, social media)  - the changes won’t mean much of anything.

For those who’ve increased their web presence via deceptive links from unrelated but highly ranked sites this Google change means that they’ll have to focus much more on quality content and less (if at all) on spammy back links meant to artificially bolster their presence on the main Google engine.

Where To From Here?

You know all those social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube and Blogs that you’ve laughed at as “not really business oriented”.

Surprise.

Under the new Google search – which will likely focus more attention  on those services – you can expect future customers to increasingly research via what we once considered non-traditional sources.

That means blogs, social media, quality content and sharing ARE the new SEO.

Out are spammy back links from overseas server farms and link shares with unrelated but highly ranked web sites.

In are content rich helpful links, posts, and video. And this content now needs to be spread across multiple types of sites and not only our web site hosted on our domain.

The game has changed for search. It’s 9 times harder – but also 9 times more rewarding for those who play it smart and embrace the new SEO with content and sharing across multiple sites.

This doesn’t mean your documents will be shared with everyone. Rather Google is notifying their users that only publicly shared items will be indexed. Users should double check on any publicly shared items to make sure that they really should be public (here’s how).

While on the surface this may seem like an invasion of privacy, and it might be if you haven’t taken care to make sure you have not shared sensitive items, it also could be a great way for web visitors to search and find your site.

Imagine if you publicly publish a  list of tips and tricks for a product that you work. By linking to this public document you’re telling Google that it’s ok for a user to find the document in a search. Which in this case is exactly what you want.

Rather than be concerned by this as a privacy issue I think everyone should focus on the search potential.

Increasingly potential customers are doing very specific keyword searches on the web. The more links you have from different areas the more likely they are to see you as an authority on the subject matter.

The higher your perceived authority — the less competition that you’ll have

Used smartly, these shared public documents could be another effective way to reach potential clients who increasingly are searching for help on support issues prior to calling in the consultant. The more (free) ways that a potential client can find you – the better!

The full email from Google is (click on the image to see it full sized on your monitor) :

There’s one huge mistake that I see in about 75% of all company blogs.

The title of their posts are completely wrong, boring and don’t give enough detail to get anyone to start reading the whole article and visiting their site.

It’s easy to write great content.

Just think of how many emails you send per day.

The idea for this post came from an email that I sent just 15 minutes ago to my blogging team at Geardiary.com. But an interesting and well written story is only half the battle. IF you’re story does not have an interesting title there’s a high probability that nobody will ever read it – or find it in Google or Bing search.

Poorly titled blog posts are my pet peeve.

Many of your readers use RSS feeds to skim headlines.
That’s the only way they may determine whether to visit your site.
While a story title like “This is crazy” (I don’t think anyone has used that title so I’m using it as an example) might make sense to YOU — for the reader and people who search the web on keywords – IT MEANS NOTHING.

Zilch. Zip.

Zero.

Guess what they do when they see a confusing or vague post title?

They read right on over to the next interesting story in their RSS Feed or Google search results.

Always strive for a descriptive title for your posts that briefly summarizes what your story is about while using appropriate keywords and product names where possible.

For example — Holy Cow, This is Amazing, What A Shock, Here we go again

Are those story titles that you stop to read if you’re browsing 100 RSS feeds?

I usually don’t. And I’m pretty sure they aren’t great at attracting web visitors to take a deeper look at your post.

Don’t title the story for you — title it for the new web visitor who stumbles across our site.

Good:

Accounting software now available

Better:

MAS90 upgrade available

Best:

Sage shipping MAS90 version 4.4 upgrade – enhances Inventory, Bill Of Materials and Purchase Order

The titles above are just quick examples. See how the ones that I’ve labeled better and best contain product names, detail and keywords that someone browsing the web might search for? Where possible avoid vague titles – that is unless you’re looking for vague results.

I really enjoy reading your posts and observing how you are leveraging social media. You have presented yourself as an expert on many topics–good for you!

I am interested in learning more about how you are using social media in your business. Do you currently promote products through Facebook, twitter and other forums? If so, I would really like to talk with you about the metrics you watch and time you dedicate to contributing and responding in these forums.

Thanks again for sharing your articles.
While I don’t think I have any unique answers to this question — it is one that I get quite a bit and perhaps by sharing my response I’ll provide value to someone else who is wondering about the same thing. Namely – how does all this Social Media fit into business and can you make any money at it (and how??).

My Response:

Hi -

We’re lifestyle consultants over here — that means we earn more money than awards….;-)

Almost all of our marketing is to existing users and “our end” (aka – why we are doing this and how we monetize it) of the marketing is to offer both project work and ongoing support plans to existing “A list” users of MAS90 or MAS200. Selling our services is the most profitable business line for us to be in.

Another reason I use social media is that I’m a terrible salesman. If people didn’t come to me I would starve….

We probably turn away 6 to 10 people every month who want to ask a quick question or pay only for 15 minutes of our time.

In a good month we’ll bring on 3 or 4 MAS90 phone support clients at $2,800 each and usually a project to go along with it. This does not happen every month (certainly not in summer) but it isn’t out of the ordinary – especially during times when Sage issues upgrades, etc.

We don’t take on existing users who are looking for free quick questions or for pay per call type support. I don’t see any business model in that and have found those types of customers to be very disloyal and resource hogs (to put it candidly).

Social Media is one component (not the only) that helps to establish us as experts that a user should feel comfortable writing a check to without a lot of back and forth sales discussions. So far this works well.

Time estimates and measurement?

Really the only measurement I’m doing now is Google Analytics to measure page growth.

I also run an email newsletter that publishes twice per month and goes out to 2.200+ subscribers. This is VERY effective in obtaining new clients.

I can’t say whether Facebook or Twitter are going to attract any particular business. My gut feel is they are a part of a way that prospects expect you to communicate — and not an entire marketing program in themself.

I’m Senior Editor at Geardiary.com which I blog for from 4:30 to 8:00 7 days a week. This is where I learned WordPress and the art of generating and posting my own unique content.

Until recently the concept of blogging for VARS was unheard of. Now you see some big ones get involved and I think you’ll see a lot more. Most of them struggle mightily with the concept of finding something worthwhile to write regularly about.

The biggest issue with VAR bloggers is they think the same 15 articles about “why you should use ____ ” is a pretty good article inventory….and they write the same damn ones over and over. B-O-R-I-N-G…

With respect to time commitment it’s a matter of re-using content whenever possible and getting good at the tools needed to post. So much of what is available online will cross post to other blogs — and Twitter serves as a good source — that once you leverage these tools it make the time a little less.

I blog probably 4 to 5 hours per day — counting geardiary.com

Wayne