Early yesterday a friend of ours over at a domain asset organization started a thread on webmasterworld about a strange new occurance within the search engines. As he typed in several broad terms he found that the majority of new rankings for these terms are large brands which did NOT use to rank for these terms. Another friend saw his website for student loans drop from 3 to page 7 and larger banks like wells fargo ect are now present. The possibility that Google has changed their algorithms to allow larger brands a massive advantage over the little guys is something of much debate. It is an ethical question and an important milestone in our American search engine industry.

The very foundation of the internet is communication and to give everyone an equal voice and at least the opportunity of equality. This algo shift in many peoples opinion has now made way for a 180 degree turn around from the google we all know and love. I guess you could call it the Commie update put forth by our good friend.

Why the new Google Update?

Speculation regarding an economy boost for these major corporations is one of the first places we might go when we start addressing this. Other ideas could be relevancy targeting for these major brands who have had trouble with their on and off page seo. Obviously we know that Google wants to provide us with more relevant results within their engines and its my feeling that they are attempting to do that through this update.  We also know that “google hand jobs” have been done in the past.  A formal statement from google has not been released as of this post date.

Some theories on how this algo shift is effecting our SEO.

First of all. I am so sick of theories. our SEO industry has to be the 1 and only industry that is full of opinions and theories. Its like A$$wholes… Everyone has them and it creates so much uncertainty, drama, fights, and frustrations which is why I am taking the Bill slawski’s approach and reading patent’s, researching theseis and engineering articles on new algorithms being implemented as to “get the information straigt from the horses mouth”.

One of the most obvious shifts that is apparent with this algorithm update is goin to be an emphasis in search saturation and off page branding – Possibly measured through google’s PPC engine adwords with specific connections to their audio and tv ads.

BTW, Hugo guzman, please never call this the arron walls update again – not funny – guest poster!

Proof of this shift via rankpulse.com:

Numbers that are bold are new rankings that have been catapulted into the first top 10 rankings by google virtually overnight!

What does this mean for us mom and pop sites?

To me it means that overal search saturation, utlizing more branding techniques and combing some off line marketing “trackable” by google will help with your overall SEO. Since our firm deals a lot with video marketing, tv ads, video syndication and radio and podcasting ads, we have seen the cost of these mediums drop dramatically to the point where large corporations are shaking in their boots. Our radio and TV ads go from anywhere between $45 and $300 per ad spot. This is a massive change from the half million dollar budgets typically spent on tv advertising. For mom and pop stores, a local seo package combined with local tv and radio ads is the way of the future. It is good to see google putting in some of these offline marketing techniques and helping facilitate a much needed blend between seo’s, internet marketers and your traditional offline marketing companies.