Up to very recently, conversion rate optimization (CRO) was dominated by consultants who were providing the optimization solutions as a blend of empirical experience with a little bit of technology. The practitioners were relying more on the art of persuasive copy writing and the best design practices, and less on the technology and scientific methods.
Google’s algo changes on a frequent basis, most of the time without warning. Why Google changes the way they rank search results so often is likely due to business objectives (keeping investors happy), trying to keep up their image as an innovator and manager of the web’s information amidst a host of competitors (Facebook, Twitter, Bing, Yelp, etc.), fighting spam, and providing relevant search results. It’s rare that Google informs everyone about upcoming changes to their algo (as they did with Caffeine), unless it helps them achieve one of their many objectives. In my opinion, Google wanted plenty of user feedback before they launched Caffeine.
Google caffeine, the latest algo update, emphasizes page speed load time. Google says this will help make the web faster – more user friendly. But how much emphasis should be placed on things like optimizing photos for faster download, consolidating all css into one file, reducing flash usage and other things that bog down a browser? Matt Cutts, Google engineer, takes a moment to answer…
Most businesses agree that link building is an ongoing part of promoting the website, but most don’t understand that link building must be a strategic part of overall marketing. Until businesses understand this, it’s almost guaranteed that many of the links they do get will not count toward higher search rank.
3 Critical Things Blog Site Webmasters Need To Know About The FTC’s New Blog Regs
In recognition of the increasing influence of social media online, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on October 5, 2009, for the first time since 1980, issued new regulations governing online testimonials and endorsements by bloggers. If you operate a blog site, your exposure to legal liability may have increased exponentially.
If link-building is all about establishing credibility on the Web, and it has to be if you want favor from Google, think for a moment: if my business and website were top of mind and authoritative, where would I expect it to be listed or referenced on the Internet? Where are my competitors referenced?
While I was working toward my electrical engineering degree, I studied control theory. Control theory deals with influencing the behavior of dynamic systems.
In the past week I have spoken with two different people who found out that indeed, transitioning their site from the old design to the new one can result in the loss of good search rank. You would think that the web developer is the one to blame here (and in some cases it is the fault of the web developer), but in reality it is the site owner’s fault.