A Very Honest & Insightful Blog Post
I was reading a post recently over at SEOMoz about Google's latest Panda update. In case you don't know about the Panda update, it’s an algorithm change in the way Google serves up web results. The Panda updates were deployed to clean up poor quality content sites and "scraper" sites (those that use software to steal content from other sites), as well as "spammy" sites. But, Google Panda update 2.2 has gone a step further...
Before I go into detail, I recall my interview at Chameleon, where I was asked about the future of search, I remember saying that gone are the days where you can launch a site (even a niche site) and expect traffic instantaneously; things are tougher and about to get even tougher. I said that sites will be judged on appearance, quality and general beauty. The thing that current site owners and potential site owners need to be aware of is that Google is raising its stakes in serving up “quality” results, so not just “relevant” results, but “quality” results. Recently, Google’s Matt Cutts (head of the spam team) said they want to be the ‘Apple’ (yes the brand) of search. They just want to serve up “beautiful” results.
I used to be a make-up artist in my spare time and know what beauty is all about; and as SEOMoz reported, Google is potentially using focus groups (which can consist of everyday people) to judge websites and their credibility. Google is probably using metrics that both we who work in usability and everyday people benchmark sites against. Before I spend my money or interact with a site I usually ask, "is the site design quality high?'’, "is it trustworthy?", "would I spend my money with them?" "do they have paypal?" (as I need to know my money will be safe) etc. The bottom line is, before launching a site, people will have to devise a complete web strategy to avoid getting burned and possibly “sandboxed”. The criteria needed to succeed online has risen dramatically and just using one channel of marketing such as, just PPC or just SEO, isn’t enough. Analytics will more important than it’s ever been, as you need to know the movement of users on your site, quickly identifying what’s working and what isn’t. You have to include usability, conversion, trust metrics, and so on and so forth. At Chameleon we really are one step ahead of the competition as we serve a whole strategy around many of these metrics and more. If you’re wondering why you’re losing traffic, sales are down and conversion is low, get in touch and we help you reclaim your web presence and further help safeguard future wrong turns and the wrath of Google...
