Google Selling Top Organic Spot?

- Jordan McCollum

I’m not sure if this can be filed under “lawsuits filed purely for publicity” quite yet, but apparently the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) is suing Google for selling the #1 organic spot in their search results. Now, either someone is confused, or the rest of the SEO industry is seriously getting gypped.

Let’s go with seriously confused: News.com.au states that the suit “alleges [that] Google does not do enough to differentiate ‘organic’ search results - those ranked by relevance - from sponsored links which appear at the top of the results page.”

For a laugh, read the rest of the story:

How to Make SEO Work for You

businessweek.com 

It’s a question Smart Answers readers often ask: How can I increase the Google ranking for my business? To get a good ranking on Google, or any major search engine, you have to make sure your Web site is “search-engine optimized.” Search engine optimization (SEO) just means your site is as accessible as possible to the search engines to improve the chances that they will serve it up when your potential customers type in specific search terms. The more easily search engines find your site, the higher up it appears on their results pages.

Constructing your site the right way is important. “Structure your site properly, code it cleanly, and use necessary keywords,” says Andy Leff, an entrepreneur and lead blogger for INCplace.com. “Sites that have the proper architecture in place, and are not slapped together, have a better chance of getting picked up by the major search engines.” Search engines “crawl” the Web looking for the keywords that their users enter, so sprinkling those keywords throughout your site means your pages will be picked up during searches.

Continue Reading… 

Optimizing Pages for Your New and Improved Search Engine Users

By Mark Jackson , September 4, 2007

SearchEngineWatch.com

A client of mine recently mentioned his analytics show a radical shift in the types of searches sending traffic to his B2B Web site. His primary keywords (those he wants us to focus on in our SEO efforts) aren’t driving significant traffic these days. Rather than the bulk of search traffic flowing through those primary keyword phrases, he’s seeing hundreds of less likely terms that send one or two people per month.

His Web site hasn’t suffered a significant loss in traffic. There has simply been a redistribution of the wealth. It’s not surprising that more and more companies are experiencing this phenomenon. In fact, SEO experts in the know predicted this years ago. It’s not that organic search engine optimization is less effective; it’s just that search engine users are becoming familiar with and educated in more effective ways to search.

Continue Reading….

Getting Greedy With Keywords

From: SEO Book

When a page or section is new and you are competing against older sites that have built authority for nearly a decade one of the easiest ways to gain traction is to pick a specific keyword phrase that is not that competitive and go after trying to rank for it.

Continue Reading….