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Latest Trends in Search

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With so much happening in the Search Industry, it is sometimes hard to keep up with the trends and even harder trying to implement any changes as suggested by the trending updates.

To make life a little easier we put together just two important trends which may impact your site and the effectiveness of it in the Search Engine Search Results (SERP's).

If you depend on Search to bring in a constantly increasing stream of visitors, then you need to act by knowing what the recent changes are in Search and how it may impact you in terms of relevancy and ranking.

Google Caffeine

After much talking and starting tests for Caffeine in November 2009, Google completed their new web indexing system last month (June 2010). The Caffeine update provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches than the last index, and it's the largest collection of web content they have ever offered.

Basically, what this means is this: The Web is constantly growing and the search engines have been lagging behind trying to index the fresher content that is out there. Thus, in trying to improve on user experience and getting new, fresh content to be indexed and delivered faster, Google (and othe SE's) started including Facebook and Twitter mentions in the Search Results. That was successful, but now Google has gone one step further by giving you search results from updated sites within seconds of being updated.

There is a lot more juicy detail available on Caffeine and if this is your kind of junk food, then read more at the following sites:


How does Caffeine affect you and what do website owners need to do?
If your site contains old, outdated content, then you're in for a shock. This will mean that you will have to put yourself out there and spend time on your own website. Here are some thoughts and ideas as to what you can do:

  • There is no such thing as setting up a site and sitting back to see what happens – get involved.
  • The more unique, fresh, and relevant content you have on your site, the better you’re going to perform in search.
  • Become an authority on a topic or product, and thereby rank better, you have to prove your worth with great content.
  • When you create fresh content on your website (everytime you build a new page), make sure it is optimised with Keywords in the Page Title, Meta Description, H1 Header, Image Alternative Description and in the content itself. Ask your SEO for help.
  • More activity is required: Not only will you need to generate more content on your website, but to succeed with Caffeine around, you will need to be active on the real-time sites such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. In other words, make use of Social Media to spread word about the new content you have just created.
  • Keep your blog rolling!
  • Update your knowledge center/news or resources page on your website regularly
  • Use press releases
  • Set up a Facebook page
  • Start Tweeting
  • Keep newsletters going; archive them on your site and tweet and blog about them
  • Catch important moments on video and post it to YouTube or Zoopy
  • Dust off your camera and post relevant pictures on Flickr


Bing-Yahoo Merger – YaBing!

The merger itself is not new news exactly since Yahoo! and Bing announcing their intentions to merge in mid-2009. What is significant is that the transition is now starting to happen.

The latest news is that Yahoo! started featuring Bing results in their paid and organic search results just after mid-July.

Search Trend data shows that 64% of searches occur on Google, 18% on Yahoo! and 12% on Bing (US data) so if we assume that no-one migrates from Yahoo! to Google after the transition, Bing will be powering approximately 30% of all search results in the U.S. That is a significant number and something to be mindful of. While this is perhaps not a true reflection of what the search share is for South Africa, it is still vitally important for site owners and their SEO’s to optimize their sites for all Search Engines, not just Google. Now there is more reason to ensure that your site is being indexed and crawled by a YaBing Spider.

Once again, there is much information available on the Merger and the affects regarding SEO, but here are a few resources:


How does the Merger affect you and what do website owners need to do?

  • Continue to do SEO as per normal SEO standards
  • Set up a Bing Webmaster Tools account so that you can make sure your site is noticed by Bing. Find out what Bing says about your site and see whether there are any crawl errors occurring that would prevent your site from being indexed or ranking well.
  • See if Bing is using geotargeting correctly and make sure Bing correctly recognizes the country and language your site is targeted to.


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