Google 2010

The direction Google is heading next

I sit here sipping some brew at my local coffee shop, not Starbucks, even though there are 2 across the street. lol

Listening to opinions all over the Internet about what Google is going to do next with their algorithms. We already know Google is going to set major brands over and above the little guys when searching for items by that company – Viagra, Skittles and Pepsi are some examples. Companies with registered trademarks will benefit from the new algorithms (most already do).

Google has been laying down some track for offering us searches based on our locality and buying preferences. You may have noticed many of your searches will turn up a local businesses based off of your IP address. While that is prevalent lately, what about searches based off of your buying habits? You may search for “US flights” and the Google search will return a list of airlines, starting with the last one you purchased a flight from over the Internet.

Living in California and searching vacation may turn up Sea World, Jelly Belly Factory Tours and a resort in Mexico. But, if you normally search European hotels and flights when you prepare for vacation, I believe you will get those searches first. These algorithms will keep your last choices at the top of the list. When you purchase a vehicle and it’s always a luxury car, then a search term for “new car” may offer you Mercedes, BMW or Lamborghini, depending on your normal buying habits on the web.

What else can we count on?
In my opinion, I think Google is heading towards giving sites with video higher rankings on the SERP than sites with 1000s of links to them. Spam has been a major factor in contributing to this new direction. It seems to me that the next logical step in determining a site’s worth is by relevant, recently updated information and video. No more outdated blogs. The use of video in your site will be much more popular to Google’s algorithms than having all of those links pointing to you. Now 1000s of links coming from PR5 and above sites may be different story. Get video in your site, even if it’s from YouTube. If my predictions are correct, you will be happy you did.

Thank you for reading “Sunday SEO live at the coffee shop”.