Saturday, September 25, 2010

Google SEO Report Card

Google ran search engine optimization audit on its own websites/products and compiled a report – Google’s SEO Report Card. From the SEO Report Card, Google’s search engine optimization audit can be categorized in three major SEO subjects:
>>Search Result Presentation: Title tag formats and lengths, description meta tag use, Google sitelink triggering and effectiveness, and main page result clearness on Google
>>URLs and Redirects: Directory forms, subdomain forms, 301s, canonicalization
>>On-page Optimizations: Heading tag use, H1 tag use, logo image link destination, logo image alt text, and descriptive internal anchor text
The 100 Google’s websites/products that have gone through the rating process in the SEO Report Card, include:
Advertising and publishing systems:
Google Adwords and Google Adsense
Users’ search trend tools:
Google Insights for Search, Google Trends
Blogging / feed management tools: Blogger and Feedburner
Personal profile: Profiles
Site search features: Google Site Search and Google Custom Search Engines
Product Tools: Google Store and Google Products
Other tools / services: Picasa Web Albums, Google Finance, Map Maker, Fast Flip, Knol and more

Friday, September 24, 2010

Google is already one of the fastest search engines on the planet — but apparently that isn’t fast enough.
Marissa Mayer, Google’s top search executive, announced a “fundamental shift” in how search operates with the launch of Google Instant at a press event in San Francisco Wednesday morning.
Google Instant still looks like the search engine’s home page people are accustomed to, but the results begin streaming in real time as a user starts typing out a search. When a user types in “SFM,” a search result for SFMOMA — the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where the event is being held — appears before the full search query is even typed.
A Google engineer later showed search results for local weather appearing after typing just the letter “W”.
Clicking on the search button or hitting “Enter” makes Google Search behave the way it always has — it brings up search results for your specific request.
Mayer said Google has spent a lot of time optimizing search on Google’s servers, bringing response time down to about 300 milliseconds, and on the network, though the latter depends on individual Internet connections.
But that’s just one second typically. Humans take 9 seconds to enter a search query and 15 seconds to select a result — that’s 24 out of the 25 seconds spent o the average search. So, Google has been focusing on how to optimize the “physical” aspects of search — the typing and the thinking that a user does when searching. She said she expects users to save anywhere from 2 to 5 seconds per search.
“We want to make search fast, fun and interactive,” Mayer said.
Google Instant will be rolling out starting today for Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer 8. The service will roll out internationally throughout the week.
Google Instant will roll out on mobile devices later this year.