Unlocking the Power of Your Web Site

Special Report - Google's Shift
 by Patrick Totty, reprinted from Inside CT

Google’s big search engine shift: You can kiss high-priced scammers who promise great placements goodbye

It’s been our custom to keep Inside CT items short and sweet so that you can scan them quickly for useful information.

This month, though, we’re making an exception in this, our first item, to discuss Google’s recent decision to change how its search engine produces results. Google’s thinking will have a direct effect on how specialty tour operators use the Internet.

Google recently changed the algorithm – mathematical model – it uses to ‘decide” which web pages it ranks in highest order whenever somebody does a search.  What happened was that Google realized it was being scammed by people who’d figured out that if they imbedded certain words or phrases in their web sites, it would increase their chances of ranking high in a Google search.

The problem was that many of the web sites that came in ranking high didn’t have much to do with what people were really searching for. Folks who typed in “adventure travel” might wind up looking at the web site of a travel agency located near Disney’s California Adventure theme park.

We’re not privy to Google’s technology or thought processes. But we think what Google has decided to do is base its algorithm on what most people actually have in mind when they type in phrases like “cultural travels” or “adventure travels.” The way it does that is to decide on a common-sense definition of “cultural travel” (travel that has a cultural component to it, such as history, art or museums) then look for web sites that contain content that’s relevant to that definition.

What does this mean for you? Four simple points:

1. Google’s search for relevance makes it look at overall content, not a bunch of unrelated phrases. Sites that try to con Google by stringing together choice words don’t get ranked high unless their actual content meets Google’s definition.

2. Google is now more inclined to zero in on portal sites, like Cultural Travels. Portal sites, because they link to an abundance of web sites that fit Google’s definitions, satisfy its insistence on relevance. Google naturally gloms onto portals because they do a lot of Google’s work for it.

(Google’s attraction to portal sites also does away with the practice of buying “links lists.” That’s where companies pay for web addresses they can link to as a way of fooling a search engine into “thinking” they must be important if they have so many links. Since the search engine “knows” that’s not the case, it bypasses the web sites.)

3. Google tips its hand by ranking highest those web sites that have the freshest content. In other words, companies that let their web site copy get old begin to plummet in rankings.

4. Google’s changes have pretty much stolen the thunder of "experts" who will sell you overpriced "secrets" on how to get ranked high in online searches. The "secrets" are really pretty simple: Join a portal site; don’t try to scam Google by attaching irrelevant "tags" or search terms to your site; keep your copy fresh; don’t get screwed by services that promise to get you ranked high in Internet searches - their day is coming to a close.