Another week, another glitzy new Google innovation that could change everything we think we know about search engine and Internet marketing (okay maybe not—but it will at least make it all a little bit faster).

Google Instant is very much like it sounds—as soon as you begin typing in a search term, Google gives you instant results.

For example, if you’re searching for “Thai food in Dallas,” you’ll get an instant set of search results with every letter. “T” brings you “Target”. “TH” brings you “Thesaurus.” “Tha” brings you “Thank Me Later” (a hip hop album by Drake). Google finally guesses right at “Thai food in Da”—much to the lament of curry cravers in Danville, California.

The results are ready and waiting, maps for local search queries included—no need to even press “search.” The company thinks Instant can save two to five seconds per search.

Google Instant Results (Click to Enlarge)

Why? According to Google:

Our key technical insight was that people type slowly, but read quickly, typically taking 300 milliseconds between keystrokes, but only 30 milliseconds (a tenth of the time!) to glance at another part of the page. This means that you can scan a results page while you type.

[...] You can now adapt your search on the fly until the results match exactly what you want. In time, we may wonder how search ever worked in any other way.

The immediate benefits are pretty straightforward:

Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way.

In other words, it’s not just a faster Google (because how important are those two to five seconds to normal people, anyway?). It’s a better Google—one that makes finding the information you need just a little bit easier.

So what does this mean for your Internet marketing strategy? Depends on how you look at it. Here are few facts, ideas, and theories:

• Better searching benefits everyone, and will contribute to the continued march toward the integration of search engines into every part of life where accessing information helps.
• Instant is not yet available on mobile searches, but the company plans to release a mobile version soon.
• It’s easy to turn off if you find it annoying just by clicking the link next to the search box.
• Some experts think it makes SEO irrelevant. Others disagree.
• It could have an effect on Adwords. According to the company:

“ Google Instant changes the way we think about impressions. With Google Instant, an impression is counted if a user takes an action to choose a query (for example, presses the Enter key or clicks the Search button), clicks a link on the results page, or stops typing for three or more seconds.

It’s possible that this feature may increase or decrease your overall impression levels. However, Google Instant may ultimately improve the quality of your clicks since it helps users type queries that more directly connect them with the answers they need.”

We’ll keep you updated as the the effects of Google Instant begin to play out. In the meantime, just continue to work on your overall search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, explore the benefits and possibilities of local search, and make sure your web site design is mobile-friendly and in position to capitalize on the burgeoning utility of local search.

Let’s say you’re out running errands in Dallas, and need to make a last minute stop for some, let’s say, size-15 stilettos — but you don’t know where to find a pair. The wonderful, magical world of local search already makes it easier than ever to find a shoe store: Search “Dallas shoe store” on your smart phone, and Google gives you an interactive map chickenpoxed with area shoe stores (including contact information).

But Google’s just taken local search a step further—bridging the web and local businesses together in a way where customers can now—at the push of a few buttons—find out if those shoe stores even have the Sasquatchian stilettos in stock… without ever setting foot in the store.

In other words, instead of local searching for a specific store, you local search for a specific product. Google shows you where to find it.

Cool? Information overload? The end of the Internet is near?

Google’s Paul Lee tells a story illustrating the company’s hope for the service:

One weekday evening a few weeks before our son was born, my wife commissioned me to find a box of raspberry red leaf tea for the delivery. I promptly drove to the nearest grocery store, which has an awe-inspiring wall of tea. After diligently scanning the wall and not finding the tea, I began to wonder if it even existed. Was the similarly-labeled raspberry tea the same thing? What about red leaf tea? Stumped, I pulled out my phone and looked up “raspberry red leaf tea” on Google. Beneath the “Shopping results,” I saw a red map marker for a nearby Vitamin Shoppe and a link, “In stock nearby,” next to a picture of Alvita Raspberry Red Leaf Tea. I hopped back in the car, and 15 minutes later had accomplished my mission. Two weeks later, my wife accomplished her much more important mission and we welcomed Benjamin, a healthy and happy baby boy, to our family.

To take part, your business would need to do a few things:

1. Make sure your business is listed and verified on Google Places.
2. Fill out a local shopping interest form.
3. Submit an “accurate and complete” data feed, including UPIs.
4. Wait for Google to accept your submission (they aren’t accepting every business right away, but are keeping submissions on file until they can).

It’s a natural progression considering Google’s aim to be able to provide searchers with any type of information needed at any time, and it should come in handy for local search-adept smartphone users. But like most new tech marvels that should ostensibly make life easier for everyone, it’s worth asking the question: is this good for your business?

There are a few obvious drawbacks: Fewer customers coming into a store means less opportunities for sales pitches and impulse buys. And less personal interaction with shoppers could make it more difficult to build lasting customer relationships.

But it could also help you reach potential customers who otherwise might not ever have reason to come into your store. And if your competition offers the service while you don’t, you could definitely miss out on local search-using customers.

Either way, it’s a development worth watching, and one more way that local search should be an important part of any company’s Internet marketing strategy.

MSN Adcenter has been around for awhile with increasing smaller traffic results. Bing has reversed this trend in the last year or so, but their numbers are about to jump significantly. Yahoo Sponsored Search results will cease to exist before the end of September; they will be all MSN Adcenter based ads!

Of course, most of you reading this already know that, but many of you really aren’t prepared to manage Bing results like a pro. I mean, their total piece of the market got down to less than 10%. Microsoft has taken a lot of time getting their interface right, and the old Live Search engine experience didn’t make the experience any better. The bad news is that there will be growing pains and a few bumps in the road before, during and after the hand-off process. The good news is that the interface is much easier to operate, and the traffic will be worth. The great news is that getting started like a pro is easy. All you have to do is download my walk-through, follow the steps, and “Bing!” you’re ready to start getting MSN Adcenter clicks.

All you need is a well done Google AdWords account, and a Bing Master Account. If you don’t have either of those you will need to get them. This article is really only about promoting the process of exporting your Google AdWords account to MSN Adcenter. That’s the easy part.

Of course, you probably already have a Yahoo account, and Yahoo has assured you that they will handle the conversion process to Bing. There are only two problems with the Yahoo to Bing conversion process. For starters, they use totally different match types; Google uses almost identical ones to Bing. Most Yahoo to Bing conversions will not be as successful as a Google to Bing conversion. The other problem only arises if you don’t have a Yahoo account; maybe you’re reading this after September?

Just view below or download the presentation, and see if it’s something that will work for you. I hope you enjoy it!

When it comes to the Internet, the customer doesn’t always have to be right.

A few weeks ago, we talked about how it’s becoming increasingly difficult to manage your online reputation. There are just too many prominent platforms online for angry customers, nefarious competitors, or criticizing chaos cravers to take unfair shots at your business.

With the arrival of local search (where customer reviews are integrated with technologies like Google Maps in search results), this problem has become even more significant. If the first thing a searcher sees about your business is a nasty (even if unfair) review, that alone could undo all the rest of the work you’ve put into an Internet marketing strategy.

Thankfully, Google has recently made it just a little bit easier to defend yourself.

According to Google’s Lat Long Blog:

Starting today, if you’re a verified Google Places business owner, you can publicly respond to reviews written by Google Maps users on the Place Page for your business. Engaging with the people who have shared their thoughts about your business is a great way to get to know your customers and find out more. Both positive and negative feedback can be good for your business and help it grow (even though it’s sometimes hard to hear). By responding, you can build stronger relationships with existing and prospective customers.

For example, a thoughtful response acknowledging a problem and offering a solution can often turn a customer who had an initially negative experience into a raving supporter. A simple thank you or a personal message can further reinforce a positive experience. Ultimately, business owner responses give you the opportunity to learn what you do well, what you can do better, and show your customers that you’re listening.

Click to Enlarge

You must be the verified owner of a verified listing in order to respond. Google also posted a user guide with some tips (be nice, don’t make it personal, etc.) for responding without losing customers a little bit less precarious.

At Masterlink, we believe strongly in mutual benefit of these sorts of online conversations, and offer a full suite of online reputation management services that ensure you a reputation that’s accurately reflective of your sterling business.

Facts and strategies are cheap in the search engine optimization (SEO) world, as one day’s success-certified SEO formula is the next day’s waste of code.

Last week, we talked briefly about how Google’s increasing emphasis on local search could dramatically change SEO. Specifically, we showed how the page placement of local search results (the Google map, local listings and user-ratings) could sometimes push otherwise perfectly optimized websites further down in the search rankings. Worse page placement could equal less incentive to spend a bunch of time and energy getting such a page to the top.

Amazing how rapidly things can change.

SEO watchers around the web noticed this week that Google has already started experimenting with different page placements of local search results. According to Mike Blumenthal’s Understanding Google Maps & Local Search, some of the tinkerings include:

1) The Places listings are BIGGER and look like the organic results except they have a map pin.

2) As you scroll down the MAP scrolls with you. So even when you are at bottom of page in the organic listings the map moves down and shows on right.

3) ONLY 7 (purely) organic listings show and in this instance most are directories or assn. Only 2 are Dentists.

4) To get on the top TWO screens you need to be in local. Most of the organic are 2 screens BELOW the fold.

5) Reviews are more prominent

6) Link to Place Page is marked as such, instead of just “More Info” which means better branding and name recognition for Google Places

7) It’s pulling meta description from the site – just like organic.

PLUS it adds some snippets from reviews on the Place page. So best of both worlds and BIGGER!

Click to Enlarge

In this format, the best-optimized websites are back on top… at least, of course, until Google decides to experiment with placing the local search results in a different spot. Or perhaps mix in a variety of placements, based on the importance of local search to that particular query. Or at least until a new, innovative way of organizing and accessing information emerges.

Two points:

1. As always, fundamentals matter the most when it comes to SEO, and an effective, well-designed site that gets shared around by clients and customers will grab the attention of the search engines one way or another.

2. Even if Google and the other search engines tinker with the placement of local search results, don’t expect them to ever minimize the importance of local search. It’s here to stay, even if the algorithm and factors the search engines love most might change.

It’s something we’re watching very closely, because local search can have huge implications for your company’s Internet marketing strategy. Stay tuned…

Here’s your new search engine optimization strategy:

1. Build a company that is valued by your customers and clients.
2. Build a smart, effective site that highlights this value.
3. Build a company that is valued by your customers and clients.
4. No, really, build a great company.

Here’s why:

A few weeks ago, we mentioned that Google had made a small tweak in the search algorithm, referred to as “Mayday”, and that such tiny changes in the formula could mean significant drops in search engine rankings for companies that focus more site optimization than on what the site actually offers to customers and clients.

Apparently, it happened as expected.

According to Web Pro News:

Google’s recent algorithm update, nicknamed “Mayday” by webmasters got a lot of people riled up, as many claimed it seriously affected their rankings, and potentially their revenues.

[…] Here are a few samples of reader comments from our previous coverage of the update:

“In conjunction with the drop in Google traffic, I have seen a matching drop in clicks out from my site to other sites. So it’s real, and it’s not been rosy to deal with.”

“Every time they make an improvement something else goes wrong.”

“Yes I have worked hard trying to rank and it keeps changing. Decided to go to other methods and forget about Google and their ranking.”

[...] One reader offered some sound advice:

“Never forget the first rules in SEO: It changes all the time. So, Google has made a change, which is not the first one. Do the basics right and you will have a sound long-term strategy.”

In an interview with the site, Google SEO liaison Matt Cutts says: “We’re trying to spot what are the signals of quality, whether for pages or for sites, that really are going to be good for users. [...] So part of what ‘Mayday’ addresses is trying to say ‘How do we return the best sites—the sites we think users are going to like?’”

We agree, and say as much often here at Masterlink Interactive: Focusing your web site’s SEO too much on a single, specific search ranking factor leaves you vulnerable to the whims and business interests of the search engines themselves. Quality sites that visitors love will thrive in a rapidly changing search environment.

This doesn’t mean that understanding the more complicated ins and outs of SEO isn’t important. Quite the contrary—the right tweaks can mean the difference between first page and third. SEO is constantly evolving, and someone (like us!) a little bit obsessed with following and figuring out the industry can benefit your company in a big way.

But web design quality is primary, and a site built solely to please the search engines is bound to fall whenever their algorithms get tweaked. We help you build sites that your customers and clients value, and it’s that element that the search engines are working endlessly to make sure matters most.

Contact us to develop a customized web design, search engine optimization, and comprehensive Internet marketing strategy.

If you noticed a slight change in your Google-driven traffic this past week, it may be due to a small tweak the search engine made in its algorithm — one that brings up an excellent point about web design and Internet marketing.

According to SearchEngineLand:

Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithms in 2009. This is one of the reasons I recommend that site owners not get too fixated on specific ranking factors. If you tie construction of your site to any one perceived algorithm signal, you’re at the mercy of Google’s constant tweaks. These frequent changes are one reason Google itself downplays algorithm updates. Focus on what Google is trying to accomplish as it refines things (the most relevant, useful results possible for searchers) and you’ll generally avoid too much turbulence in your organic search traffic.

However, sometimes a Google algorithm change is substantial enough that even those who don’t spend a lot of time focusing on the algorithms notice it. That seems to be the case with what those discussing it at Webmaster World have named “Mayday”.

[...] This change impacts “long tail” traffic, which generally is from longer queries that few people search for individually, but in aggregate can provide a large percentage of traffic.

This change seems to have primarily impacted very large sites with “item” pages that don’t have many individual links into them, might be several clicks from the home page, and may not have substantial unique and value-added content on them. For instance, ecommerce sites often have this structure. The individual product pages are unlikely to attract external links and the majority of the content may be imported from a manufacturer database.

Our favorite Google webmaster Matt Cutts posted a YouTube explanation of the tweak as well, describing it as “…an algorithmic change that changes how we assess which sites are the best match for long tail queries.” Cutts calls the change a “quality win,” and the goal, he says, should search relevancy, not search rankings.

They both highlight an important guiding philosophy about web design: obsessing and designing your site around a single, specific search ranking factor leaves you vulnerable to the whims and business interests of the search engines themselves.

Google’s goal is to get searchers the best, most accurate, most valued-by-the-wider-web-community information possible, and is constantly tweaking its search algorithm to weed out any emerging SEO gimmicks that undermine that aim.

So let’s say you own a Yamaha Mortorcycle parts shop in Dallas. You can’t just put “Yamaha Mortorcycle parts shop in Dallas” a thousand times on your site and hope to come out on top. Google values more than just keyword volume. They want the companies at the top of their rankings to be valued in their communities (and to have websites that reflect as much).

Similarly, our SEO goal isn’t to artificially boost your company’s presence on the web. It’s to help you highlight and draw attention to the excellent services you already provide.

So from your initial web design to the implementation of your on-going Internet marketing strategy, we take a more nuanced, comprehensive approach to interactive marketing and SEO.

This means aspects like:

• First and foremost, a quality, adaptable, customizable web design (view our web design portfolio here).
• A content management system supported by our Dallas staff that allows site owners to quickly and easily make changes.
• A MarketMaster™ interactive marketing plan that maximizes results by anticipating and meeting your unique needs.
• A social media marketing plan that both engages your customers and site visitors in a meaningful way, and boosts SEO via link building.
• An Internet marketing strategy built around social media marketing, pay-per-click services, online reputation management, email marketing, blogging, link building, conversion optimization and web analytics services.

Speed now matters in SEO, according to an announcement on the Google Webmaster Central Blog by by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow and Matt Cutts, Principal Engineer, Google Search Quality Team.  The search engine behemoth revealed that it will start factoring in website speed (how quickly a website responds to web requests) into its search results algorithm – a decision based on split seconds it thinks have no business being wasted.

Google recently added Site Performance and Page Speed suggestions in Google Webmaster Tools accounts and actually indicated it would start tinkering with the idea a of speed as a ranking factor last year, and soon realized they were onto something. According to Search Engine Land, Google sees this as a win for both its interests and those of the wider web.

In addition to the numerous studies over the years that show Internet users prefer fast pages, Singhal says Google ran its own testing on how users respond to page speed, including experiments on Google.com. Singhal and Cutts point to a June 2009 blog post on the Google Research Blog that talked about how Google purposely slowed down its search results to measure the impact on search behavior.

All other things being equal, more usage, as measured by number of searches, reflects more satisfied users. Our experiments demonstrate that slowing down the search results page by 100 to 400 milliseconds has a measurable impact on the number of searches per user of -0.2% to -0.6% (averaged over four or six weeks depending on the experiment). That’s 0.2% to 0.6% fewer searches for changes under half a second!

“When we slow our own users down [on Google.com], we see less engagement,” Singhal says. “Users love fast sites. A faster web is a good thing all around.”

Speed makes for an interesting SEO factor, because it’s one of the few that directly rewards website performance (as opposed to design factors like site architecture and keywords). And it’s a reminder of what good search engines try to do: give searchers quick, accurate access to the best and most relevent information they’re looking for. Slow sites inhibit that goal.

So here’s a few tips for keeping your website humming:

1. Consider SEO ramifications before adding heavy, unnecessary features — especially if the benefits of such features are unproven (we think a sleek, uncluttered web design looks better, anyway).

2. Tinker with tools. Google has a bag full of tricks that can help “make the web faster” in addition to the specific page speed suggestions provided in Google Webmaster Tools.

3. Limit HTTP requests. According to the Yahoo Developer Network: “80% of the end-user response time is spent on the front-end. Most of this time is tied up in downloading all the components in the page: images, stylesheets, scripts, Flash, etc. Reducing the number of components in turn reduces the number of HTTP requests required to render the page. This is the key to faster pages.”

It’s big news on the web and especially with SEO and Social Media Marketing specialists. Facebook overcame internet giant Google as the most visited website in the US for the week ending March 13, 2010. This isn’t the first time Facebook has beat out Google in terms of visits, “Facebook.com recently reached the #1 ranking on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day as well as the weekend of March 6th and 7th” according to Heather Dougherty, Director of Research at Hitwise who released the numbers. Although this is the first time the social networking site has beaten out Google for an entire week. Perhaps it’s Google who is sending more traffic to Facebook via real time search.

Facebook Beats Google

Although the social media darling only narrowly beat out the search engine giant by .04%, Facebook shows no signs of slowing down as it continues gaining market share, which “increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame” added Dougherty.

So what does this mean for your business? You need to be were your customers are. While they are certainly still using Google they are most likely spending time on the popular social networking site as well. According to the Hitwise report, Facebook and Google combined accounted for 14% of all US internet visits last week.

If your website depends on Google for the majority of your traffic it might be time to rethink your internet marketing strategy and include social media. Does your business have a Facebook presence? Are you reaching out to your potential customers and making sure you are present where they are so you can be easily found and become engaged with them? If not go get your Facebook page now (and become a fan of Masterlink Interactive on Facebook while you’re there!). If you need help on Facebook ask any teenager or call the social media marketing specialists at Masterlink Interactive to help you plan a complete interactive marketing plan for your business ensuring you can be found by your potential customers wherever they may be on the world wide webz!

Your tire company is having a big sale. What’s the best way to spread the news? Here’s a method that just got very, very important to understand:

In a (rather fitting) Twitter announcement a few weeks ago, Google revealed that public status updates from Facebook will now be included in their search engine’s real-time search feature. It’s just the latest step in Google’s quest to perfect organization of and access to what seems like all the information in the entire world (also check out Kimber’s excellent take on Google’s new Personalized Search).

Real-time search is, essentially, instant access to the latest information about a particular subject popping up all over the web. When people post an update, you can instantly find it (not in all cases). The technique has been the gold at the end of the social media rainbow for a long time, but finally broke through recently thanks to Twitter’s massive success. Google jumped in a few months ago, allowing users to search through aggregated updates from platforms like Twitter, FriendFeed, and more — and now Facebook status updates.

Here they explain why:

“Search is a natural starting point for discovering the world’s information, and we strive to bring you the freshest, most comprehensive and relevant search results over an ever expanding universe of content on the multitude of devices you use to access it.

Now, immediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before. When they are relevant, we’ll rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search results page.

Try searching for your favorite TV show, sporting event or the latest development on a recent government bill. Whether it’s an eyewitness tweet, a breaking news story or a fresh blog post, you can find it on Google right after it’s published on the web.”

You can access these updates via the “options” link located at the top of the search results page.

Compare this to a regular Google search — the process we all know and love and spend hours and hours trying to understand in order to help businesses secure a spot high up in the results — where the search engine tries to return the best possible information, but not necessarily the latest. When it comes to Internet marketing, the latest can sometimes be as effective as the best.

WebProNews puts the business impact this way:

“This seems to indicate that brands should be getting a good amount of play for Facebook appearances in Google’s real-time search results, and possibly in the real-time search results in general (due to Facebook’s huge user-base). Right now, Facebook isn’t dominating the results, but that is bound to change with it being the largest (by far) social network on the web…

This should also lead to Facebook Pages getting more fans, due to the increased exposure. Beware, however, that running a promotion on your Facebook Page may cost you ten thousand dollars, because Facebook’s policy guidelines indicate that you must get written approval from a Facebook account rep. In order to get one of those, you must spend that much in advertising, according to Eric Eldon of Inside Facebook.

So how will this affect the Dallas Internet marketing community?

Primarily, it shows just how important establishing a social media presence — including Facebook — should be for businesses. Now, a public status update on your business’ page won’t just reach your Facebook friends and fans, but potentially anyone, anywhere in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex (and beyond) using Google.

For example: you post a Facebook update about a sale your company is having on, let’s say, tires. If someone searches “Tire Sale in Dallas,” the idea is that your update will pop right up. It could be that easy but while this is a recent release we have seen the success vary on our customer base but believe as Google perfects the algorithm that this will soon change.

It’s a huge base, and an interactive marketing niche we’ll be pioneering at Masterlink Interactive throughout the near future. Stay tuned.

Stuart Frazier | Operations Manager for Masterlink Interactive