Search Without Google, WTF?

Paul J. Bruemmer
Contact
follow this author

Search Posted on July 09, 2007

Print
Share
Comment

Previous
6 of 7
Next

Social media marketing

You may not get all the traffic you need from organic and paid campaigns on Yahoo, Ask and MSN Live Search. However, you can gain serious amounts of traffic and SEO benefits by using social media marketing strategies.

One of the first things you can do to increase traffic from engines other than Google is to create and optimize all types of content possible. Below are a few suggestions.

Blog search: Blogs are the low-hanging fruit, easy to launch and maintain. Every company should consider a blog strategy to interact with customers and other people who comment on its brand, products or services. The keyword-rich fresh content and communication with power bloggers can create inbound link-love that will go a long way toward boosting organic search engine rankings.
Video search: Videos can be useful for many types of businesses. Perhaps a demonstration video explaining a complex product would work well. For instance, creating safety in cars is easier to communicate in a series of short videos and would be much more interesting than a printed guide describing vehicle safety features. Optimize and syndicate your videos on AOL.
Local search: Get listed in local search engines. Most engines provide free local listings. At Yahoo Local, you can get a free Basic Listing consisting of your company name, address, phone number and other business details. MSN Live Search partners with Citysearch to create its local listings, and Ask has Ask City. After these three, don't overlook the verticals serving results in your niche because they accept business listings also.
Image search: Ask3D and other major search engines will display images with web results; therefore, customers can find you via your online images. Optimize your images with descriptive alt tags and file names that use the keywords accurately describing your images.
News search: You can also get a lot of links by optimizing and submitting your press releases to Yahoo News and Ask News. Announce your next training conference or local breakfast meeting. Make your press releases newsworthy and informative for display and indexing as news in web results.
Viral campaigns: Viral campaigns done right can create a lot of links and traffic. Going viral depends on creative relevance and distribution. This requires planning and preparation to yield successful results; blogs, search engines and humans love it.
Social networking profiles: When appropriate, create a profile on a social networking site that your brand fits with. However, you must know the rules of the community and build a relationship with its participants well beforehand. Map out a strategy and know the communities intimately before you go there because such a campaign can backfire if not executed with professional style.
Social media marketing campaigns: Following is a list of sites you can target for social media marketing campaigns, as revealed in the Seattle SMX session, "SEO Meet SMM": Wikipedia, Yahoo, Answers, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Amazon, Technorati, Twitter, craigslist, Yelp, Judy's Book, Citysearch, wikiHow, Newsvine, Squidoo, Naymz and Tagalag. Let your team be creative and reach out to these communities with cutting-edge information your audience can use.
Place articles in niche sites: One last tip is to write articles in your area of expertise and then submit to niche sites, including social media sites. This will result in links and search listings if you are knowledgeable and can write well. If you don't write well, hire an editor to spiff up your piece.

Member Sign In

Not a People Connection member? Register here.

Your Email Address

Password

Keep me signed in for a month Forgot password?

Paul Bruemmer July 9, 2007 at 6:56 PM

Hi David Berkowitz, I knew I should have co-authored this article with someone like you. Okay, it took Google 10 years to move from the days of junk index to outstanding results deep and wide in 2007. So, I guess we can give it 10 years rather than overnight...

Paul Bruemmer July 9, 2007 at 6:44 PM

Hi Vicki, no doubt Google has been and continues to be a significant asset to us all. They offer great products and services and appear to have the Midas Touch. However, their ability to make billions of dollars from the original crowd at GoTo.com e.g., the original PPC, will remain as the single biggest impression in my mind. I see they are spending a lot of their time and money shoring-up the revenue model indifference e.g., DoubleClick and more to come.

Paul Bruemmer July 9, 2007 at 6:42 PM

Hi Dave Colson, you must be reading our minds...insert smile here...and keep an eye out for this follow-up piece.

Paul Bruemmer July 9, 2007 at 6:40 PM

Hi Mathew, thanks for acknowledging this fact, no single search company can rule 100% of the market. A more likely possibility is diversity e.g., 300 TV channels today Vs. 13 channels 40 years ago. In any event, Google will have its hands full over the next 10 years.

Paul Bruemmer July 9, 2007 at 6:35 PM

Hi Chris Kameir, you may have more intuition than most and clearly understand the essence of this subject matter. Hear, hear... I concur, Google must properly allocate investments towards new and improved algo’s e.g., Hal, open the door Hal.

Paul Bruemmer July 9, 2007 at 6:34 PM

Ian, yes I would agree – it is purely speculation as to ‘how’ the corrosion of Google's domination might evolve. I think it is safe to say however; Google’s success is hinged on ‘trust’ and as long as we (the population) are willing to ‘trust Google,’ Google will likely continue to thrive regardless of my statements today .

Paul Bruemmer July 9, 2007 at 6:30 PM

Hi Sarah – use ASK only for the organic benefits; as you and I have stated “Since Ask gets its sponsored search results from Google, we won't get any help here.”

Sarah Prater July 9, 2007 at 3:27 PM

We get Ask through google, though, right? so , why would we want to buy Ask directly if it is in Google's Search network?

Ian Cooper July 9, 2007 at 3:10 PM

In some parts of the world (and until Yahoo's solution is released) the choice is rather limited making it hard to see how Google will be knocked off. If it is, I would suggest that it will not come from one of the engines listed above but rather from another, yet unknown, provider.

Chris Kameir July 9, 2007 at 1:28 PM

The threat is very real. Already Google's result are not that much better than the ones delivered by Yahoo or MSN. And Google's problem is that their algorithm is the main target for all search engine spammers.

Matthew Haley July 9, 2007 at 11:16 AM

Although it may be possible that Google could wain in 10-20 years, I don't think I would count on it as part of my marketing strategy. But it is sound advice to focus on other search engines, because no search engine will capture 100% of the market. Some people do tend to put all their eggs in the Google basket, and that may be a little short sighted.

Dave Colson July 9, 2007 at 9:59 AM

While I agree with the premise of the article, I think drilling down a little deeper would be more valuable. Given how Panama changed the search landscape for many and how any change to the Google ad platform could significantly impact your business, I think taking a hard look at other search engine opportunities such as Miva and Looksmart would be a worthwhile follow-up to this article and conversation.

Vicki ONeill-Ropos July 9, 2007 at 9:03 AM

I agree there should always be a short and long terms trategy especially with online search and the quickly changing landscape. However, Google continues to demonstrate innovation and ability to adapt to (and often times create) user trends. They also continue forming strategic partnerships. I would anticipate instead of those users going away or migrating to other resources, Google will continue evolving, acquiring and forming business relationships that continue creating life time usage and value.

David Berkowitz July 9, 2007 at 8:42 AM

Good article, but it's the premise I don't buy. Google may not last forever, but its market share is only increasing, and no one will wake up one day to find these several million users suddenly gone.