The Latest Google Algorithms

As we have seen in the past Google always updates its ranking strategies and algorithm on an ongoing basis. In the last few weeks, there were three changes on the Google search result pages which were visible to all the users.

Some of the changes are mentioned below.
1. The snippet length for the search results has increased. Earlier the snippet was of two lines. Google now displays an extended snippet of 3 lines for queries that consist of three or more keywords. The idea behind this change is that these multi keyword queries are very targeted and complex and hence the short snippet might not contain enough information.

The longer snippet contains much more information. This proves to have an little bad impact on your website traffic. Since Google tries to provide the user with the most relevant information in the longer snippet, the snippet might already contain the answer to the user's query. So in a longer snippet the users mostly get their answers in the search result page and rarely click through the website.

Another disadvantage of this longer snippet is that they need more space on the result page and hence they move another result below the fold and the web users will see fewer results in the screen. In this case it seems that Google ignores the meta description tag for the snippets.

2. Another change is that Google now shows more related searches at the bottom of the search results page. It is very important that you optimize the different pages of your website for different keywords. Try to cover a wide range of keywords so that Googly will classify your website as relevant to the complete topic. The more related keywords and pages can be found on your website, the better is for the traffic on your website.

3. The third change is that Google now shows local results based on IP addresses. When we search for a common term such as "nursery" you will see a little box to enter a zip code. These local results are delivered based on the IP address of the searcher. That means that you will get different results than people in another city.

With this feature it has now become easier to rank for competitive keywords for some local searches. While it's very difficult to get a high ranking for a very competitive keyword in the regular results, it's much easier to be listed for that keyword in the local results if you're living in a small town. The best way to improve your ranking in the local searches is to submit your website to Google maps.Doing this will web surfers easy to find you in these local searches.

Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Social Media refers to a collective group of web properties whose content is primarily published by users, not direct employees of the property. Social media optimization (SMO) is the process of trying to get one's content more widely distributed across multiple social media services. SMO includes adding links to Social Bookmarking sites such as Digg, Mixx, Reddit, Faves, Stumbleupon etc. By doing this the submitted links or pages can be easily saved / submitted and can be shared among different users. In SMO, video clips can also be saved and shared among users, by submitting the videos in various Video sharing websites.
Some of the major goals of Social Media Optimization (SMO) includes brand awareness, better search engine placement,reputation management, create customer loyalty, generate traffic, reach the ideal audience etc. It helps the client in getting brand awareness, instant exposure, getting external links, relevant traffic generation, getting connected to relevant communities, getting the content to travel and more.
SMO has become one of the most integral part of search engine marketing, along with SEO.