Google Secure Search – it should matter to you
because your website ranking will be impacted since we are now going at it blindly (unless you are a paying Adwords client)
More changes from the search engine giant. All organic searches on Google site are now encrypted as of this week. What does this mean in non geeky terms? It means that Google will no longer pass keyword search data to websites. In other words you can’t track users by the keywords they’ve used.
Knowing what keywords are being used to find our businesses is important in online marketing because that’s how we know what prospects and customers were looking for when they came to our websites. Depending on the keywords provided by Google , you would be able to change your targeted keywords and make necessary adjustments to your content.
No more. That is unless you are running Adwords campaigns. If you are a paying Google advertiser you are not only able to get all of the keywords your hear desires but you can also go back as far as you would like.
My “Glass half empty” opinion
Google is pushing paid ads not organic results. No surprise here, this is how Google makes its money. Because of this huge money maker we are able to get all of the “free” apps they put out. However, for a company that in 2011 made a huge change in their Penguin Update to get rid of results they deemed as spam, pushing paid advertising is contradictory.
They won’t tell you that it is spam, they’ll mask the results nicely like what I see in my gmail inbox every day. There will still be organic results but something tells me that those results will match a lot of the paid ads we see on the right and up top. At least this will be the case for national clients. We’ll see how it affects local search.
My “Glass half full” opinion
We should be providing content that is relevant and engaging. We should be writing for our readers and not for search engines. If you are already doing this, you should be ok (as far as I can tell). Google is tightening up the reigns and keeping us on our heels. We need to pay attention to what is happening with our local online marketing.
Local online marketing should only be part of your marketing plan not your entire marketing plan. Be sure to have a balanced marketing approach to maximize your results.
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All this confirms is that Google is confusing. How are you supposed to run your local bakery and still know what Google is asking for? Hang in there.
- Create relevant content
- Make sure your Google places page is correct
- Shoot short, engaging and helpful videos and put them out there for the world to see
- Update your website regularly
- Don’t ignore offline marketing
I know it is a lot to take in. If it all gets too confusing, we’re a phone call away.
Good selling,
Byron
