We just want to wish all of you a happy and prosperous new year.  Keep checking our blog for latest search engine news and commentary.  We also have some exciting opportunities in development that will continue to solidify Search Concepts as one of the most reliable and ethical sources for SEO and search engine advertising.

Google: an innovative, cutting edge tech company that encourages a casual work setting in the environmental friendly and trendy Googleplex.  Procter & Gamble: the 2008 advertiser of the year that spends more than twice as much as the next advertiser on the list, has prospered since the 1800s, and only spends a tiny fraction of its ad budget online.  These two companies recently initiated an employee-swap in an effort to learn from each other.  So, what can we learn from them?

While the swap has been helpful for Google in terms of further educating their employees about marketing, it may be critical for P&G.  Consumers ages 18 to 27 use the Internet 13 hours per week and only watch 10 hours of TV.  Advertising on TV is still huge (look no further than the price of Superbowl ads), but P&G seems to understand that the future is online.  Online searches for the word “coupon” have increased 50 percent in the past year, indicating that consumers are flocking to the Internet more frequently than ever.

Internet viewers are more active than passive TV viewers and thus are tougher to reach.  It takes expertise to efficiently navigate the waters of online advertising.  P&G understood that and went to Google for insight.  Your business can look to Search Concepts with confidence for solutions to its online advertising needs.

Google recently unveiled a new search feature called SearchWiki, which allows searchers to rank sites as they please so future searches are organized according to their preference.  You can re-rank, delete, and add listings that are visible to just you, but you can write comments and notes on search listings that are visible to everyone.

I’ve never been a fan of public comments on blogs or articles.  I don’t dislike them as much as Buzz Bissinger, but it seems that for every useful comment, there are about ten asinine ones that serve no purpose but to discredit the source, promote something else, or create spam.

Allowing public comments on search listings allows web site owners to disparage their competition while hiding behind a screen name.  Over the years, Google has faced so much scrutiny with click fraud; this new comment feature opens up yet another outlet for competitors to sabotage one another.

The re-ranking feature is fine as people should have some control over their personal searches.  If anything, Google will use this data to continue the enhancement of their ranking algorithm.  If they can see what people want and don’t want, then they can make the necessary adjustments to the algorithm if the data recommends it.

The public note and comment feature has to go… and I’m betting it will be removed or revised sooner rather than later.

It has been an interesting week or so in the search engine industry, especially for Google.  After it pulled the plug on its proposed deal with Yahoo!, Google now faces an unexpected twist in the wireless cell phone search market.

In a previous blog about the wireless ubiquity of SEO, we noted that Verizon was in early discussions regarding a partnership that would feature Google’s search service on Verizon phones.  However, on Wednesday reports leaked that instead Microsoft is offering a better deal to become Verizon’s default wireless search provider - reportedly twice as much as Google was offering.

While it is true that a deal with Microsoft would not preclude Verizon phone users from accessing Google’s search engine and only makes Microsoft’s search engine the default, the significance of Microsoft’s proposal should not be overlooked.  The fact that Microsoft was willing to guarantee $550 to $650 million and double Google’s proposal, even during a financial crisis, shows how important they consider the mobile phone search engine industry.

Again, as search engines becoming increasingly accessible - literally in the palms of to millions of users across the globe - your business cannot afford to neglect SEO.

UPDATE:  as of November 6, the proposed deal between Google and Yahoo! is officially dead.

Perhaps in a last ditch effort to appease the Department of Justice, Google and Yahoo! have submitted a revised agreement that limits the scope of their proposed partnership.  Under the new terms of the deal, the length of the agreement is only two years, instead of as many as ten.  Additionally, Yahoo! would only be able to receive 25 percent of its total web search sales from the deal with Google.

Although there is no guarantee that this revised proposal will be enough to alleviate the concerns of the DOJ, it does represent somewhat of setback for both companies.  Yahoo!’s additional operating cash flow would be more limited and Google would not be able to exert as much power as it would like.  Even so, after release of the news, the stock price of both companies saw an increase.

The proposed advertising partnership between Google and Yahoo! is not dead, but the possibility of one or both sides walking away seems increasingly likely.  Just how that might play out, however, is not that simple.

Some have suggested that Google is simply playing a game of chicken with the Department of Justice.  At this point, Yahoo! may be reluctant to back out of the agreement unless it has to, as its core business continues to suffer.  The deal contract between the companies specifies that either party may end the agreement to avoid an antitrust lawsuit if defending that lawsuit is not commercially reasonable.  In other words, both companies may have to wait for the DOJ to officially challenge their proposed deal before they can back out of the deal without being liable to the other company for breach of contract.

One of the sticking points is apparently the DOJ’s desire to have both companies sign a consent degree stating the terms of the partnership.  The problem with that, especially from the perspective of Google, is that continued compliance would be subject to judicial oversight.  More than one expert has suggested that Google might be better off not drawing any more attention to its dominant hold on the market than it already has.

Our clients commonly request that we examine their competitor’s well-ranking websites and duplicate those on-site optimization features in effort to achieve similar SEO results.  Clients seem to think that if their competitors are achieving results this way, then they will too.

We usually take a look at your competitor’s web sites to become better acclimated with the terminology of the particular industry for keyword research purposes.  That said, we never imitate the on-site SEO characteristics of other web sites.  Here’s why:

Web Site Structure. Your competitor’s sites are structured, designed, and built differently than yours is. Imitating on-page features may not be possible given the structural differences.

Domain Name and Age. If your top ranking competitor’s domain name consists of a highly searched industry keyword, this provides them with a huge advantage from the get-go.  Trying to optimize for that same keyword presents a major challenge.  In addition, if the age of your competitor’s domain name is older than yours, then your competitor’s site is likely a more relevant and trusted site because it has been in each search engine’s crawl longer than yours.

Inbound Links and PageRank. If your high-ranking competition has been around a while, they’ve probably built a considerable amount of links, achieving a Google PageRank of 1-10.  Imitating the optimized content of a site that has many inbound links and a quality PageRank will not achieve the same results for your site since you do not have the same PageRank or amount of quality links.

These are just a few reasons why imitating your competition’s optimized content such as meta tags or keyword frequency is generally not a wise strategy.  Also consider that your low-ranking competitors might be in the same position as you and have a similar mindset of imitating the on-page content of your top competitors.  With everyone pursuing the same keywords and optimization strategies, achieving a competitive advantage and quality rankings becomes less likely.

At Search Concepts, we’re more concerned with what your competition is not doing.  The search engines can be crowded so it’s important to find unique approaches that give your site the advantage it needs.  We’re committed to this strategy, especially in keyword research.  Instead of pursuing only the most popular search terms, we also dig for the niche keyword phrases that are searched, but don’t have millions of other sites competing for them.  You would be surprised at how many relevant and searched keywords are often overlooked by your competition and their short-sighted SEO strategy.

In conclusion, discover what your competition is not doing and find a unique angle that will differentiate your site from the rest of your competition. A unique approach will get you the results you’re looking for in the search engines. Find out how Search Concepts can achieve the results you’re looking for by requesting a free quote.