Podcast: Play in new window
In this Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) news update Mick covers off the latest changes made by Google, how it affects you as a small business owner and what you can do about it.
Transcript:
Hey guys. It’s Mick from Redcliffe Marketing Labs with a quick SEO update with some changes that happened recently.
You might see quite a bit of coverage in the next few days in the SEO world about a big change that Google has just rolled out. What they’ve done is they have actually encrypted all the searches that you and I do through the normal Google search, what we call organic searches. Previously you’ve got to into you Google Analytics account and have that setup on your website and actually see what terms people have been typing in their Google to arrive in your website. That’s really useful market research data that you can use.
What this change means is that that data now is going to turn up as “not provided” in Google Analytics and basically is hidden. So that is a really big change because for years people have been using that data to work out what sort of content they should be creating, helps give you an idea what people in your market are looking for so you can create solutions for that and also help tie back in and feeding back into your pay-per-click marketing and knowing what people are interested in and for doing your keyword research.
The significance of that for you as a business owner, what you need to do is go in and make sure that your Google Webmaster Tools account is actually setup and connected to your website. So many people may have Google Analytics installed but may not take that extra step of having Google Webmaster Tools tracking setup and connected to their website, because you’re still be going to your Google Webmaster Tools and get some kind of keyword data there that you can use and still tie it back into your marketing.
The other effect is it is going to be that much more important to use Google Adwords because in your Google Adwords account you are still going to see the number of searches and traffic that is coming through on keywords that you are bidding on and that’s going to help you again get that market research and analysis back that you have lost from Google Analytics.
At the end of the day though the core strategy and the long-term strategy that you want to have is not necessarily to get worried that the individual daily changes that Google makes or worry about keywords, its to be out there trying to create fantastic information and content on your website and on your different online platforms, that is going to solve problems for your customers because that’s what they are after. If you can be the best problem solver as a provider in your market then you are the one that they’re going to come to for solutions.
Definitely look at Google Webmaster Tools, connect that to your website. You will still get some data from there but the ongoing idea again is to be creating good valuable content that’s solving problems for your market place.
Now if you’re feeling lost with this sort of stuff or you can’t keep up with the changes or you just want a little bit of extra help and maybe some long-term plans on where you should be going to get the most out of your time, your effort and your marketing, then it might be time you consider booking in and going through a marketing strategy session where we could set you up with some planning, tell you what things you should be focusing on and where to put your time, your money and your effort into so you can receive the best returns for your business.
Thanks for tuning in for this SEO update and I’ll see you in future videos.