On the heels of the latest GeoPublishers.com Expo, a recent post on DomainSherpa discusses the five biggest takeaways from the event that are trending today.

Michael Cyger cites Sara Mannix, President of Mannix Marketing, in one of the takeaway points with her recommendations on how to build the brand, and not just rely on the weight of the domain name. Mannix Marketing owns and operates several geodomain websites including LakeGeorge.com, Saratoga.com and Albany.com.

If you were one of the unfortunate ones unable to attend this years GeoPublishers.com conference, take a moment to check out the 5 Huge Trends in GeoDomains Now!

When Google Caffeine was released, we rediscovered the importance of page load time …among other things. And maybe it’s not as important as content relevance, but Matt Cutts did say, “…Relevancy is the most important [ranking factor]. If you have two sites that are equally relevant… you’d probably prefer the one that’s a little bit faster, so page speed can be an interesting theory to try out for a factor in scoring different websites. But absolutely, relevance is the primary component… That’s not going to change.”

Okay, that much we could probably have figured out on our own, content trumps page speed… great.

While Matt Cutts didn’t elaborate on how important page load speed was compared to the more than 200 other page ranking factors, last month we may have seen a hint at its importance when a new feature was introduced on Google Analytics allowing you to track page load speed right within your account. So obviously it’s important enough to extend tracking support.

Although page load speed is not automatically included, it is pretty easy to install. Just add _gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']); to your Google Analytics script

LIKE THIS…

<script type=”text/javascript”>

  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-123456-1']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']);

  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’;
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();

</script> 

While we may not know just how important page speed is, we do know that it’s important not just to ranking well in the search engines, but also for an improved user experience. Start comparing bounce rates and average time on pages and conversion rates between two pages of greatly varying load times, what are you seeing… if the content is not worth the wait, your visitors will likely leave.

So get cracking! Start crunching and tracking your page speed and let me know what you see for results!

As an example, we looked a little closer at AmericanTowns.com on Quantcast. Traffic has fallen drastically in the last week:

By the way, not one of Mannix Marketing’s websites have been affected. For quality Internet marketing services, contact us today: 1-800-928-9154.

…One local company that sells auto parts for British and other foreign cars reported a strong online business over the holiday weekend. Clifton Park-based Atlantic British Ltd., like many online retailers, was offering free shipping on some items…”trending about 11 percent over where we were last year.”

Read the full story here: http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Strong-start-to-holiday-shopping-840321.php

It will be interesting to see how Buzz takes on the other social networking sites. It appears to be blending Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare into one formidable challenger, but is it likely to be that “killer” of any or all of these? Ummm… doubtful. I think it offers a different way of sharing media but it’s unlikely to lure over Facebook or Twitter users. It’s likely to be attractive to a small percent of existing Gmail users who are not already using one of the other social media sites.

The biggest issue I predict with Buzz is that it’s not a stand-alone application. Meaning someone who’s never heard of Buzz will only be aware of it if they have and use Gmail and are connected to someone else who also has and uses a Gmail account. It’s kind of like an invitation to a party that you already have to be attending in the first place. Google could have made Buzz accounts accessible with existing Gmail accounts (and provided the Gmail integration), but it should have made Buzz its own site with allowances for other non-Gmail accounts to participate. Perhaps that’s phase two though, after testing it on a smaller scale. We’ll wait and see if it’s really a buzz or just a buzzard.

These results will be displayed similar to how “News” has been populating into the search results. The difference is that it looks to be longer and with scrolling capability for more current results. There’s also an added function for drilling down into the data by time or date range. Real-time results do not appear to be taking the spots of natural listings in the Top 10… if anything, the results are pushed a little bit further down on the page.

“Google isn’t the first to initiate real-time search, but it is likely to make it mainstream.”

The implications of this new addition are a little too early to see clearly, but I think it will eventually change how we use search and therefore how we strategize for SEO. Google isn’t the first to initiate real-time search, but it is likely to make it mainstream. People are going to be taking crash courses and learning very quickly just how important the “now” information can be. Likewise, businesses are going to quickly see that having “active” social media profiles are not just good ideas… but necessary components of their search strategy. Businesses will also become mindful of the language used and will need to include search phrases (as it pertains) within their social profiles. I’m sure there will be some gaming attempts of the real-time results, but Google’s pretty quick at catching on - they’ll likely start to blacklist profiles from inclusion… so be careful not to overdo it and be mindful of your audience – they’re not dumb.

When looking at social media, the conversion rates thus far have been pretty miniscule (and over-hyped) when compared against traditional search conversions, but I think these conversions will change too, and should shoot way up with the new integration.

“…Real-Time Search will… [lead to] …an increase in bookmarking and back linking…”

Kind of a random thought, but I think one of the side effects of this new Real-Time Search will be an increase in bookmarking and back linking to the included sites and pages. With a traditional search, you could generally find the same page again simply by replicating the search (the Lazyman’s bookmark). With real-time resources… that information could be long buried. Searchers will be more likely to record these important time/date sensitive information somewhere… So another important feature that’s now even more necessary – having bookmarking scripts included on all of your web pages.

It’s pretty exciting stuff happening, and I think SEO as a whole be very busy in 2010!

At the time, I remember wondering (worrying) what chaos this would bring to the SEO world if that personalization were at everyone’s fingertips… if any given search phrase resulted in a slightly different position based on individuals’ search history.  I pictured clients calling me up complaining that they did a search at home and were #2 and now that they’re at work they’ve suddenly dropped to #8… Oh, and by the way, they called to verify with a buddy and he couldn’t find them at all. Well, Google was pretty serious about these personalized results. I didn’t realize how serious until they extended Personalized Search to everyone!

“Previously, we only offered Personalized Search for signed-in users, and only when they had Web History enabled on their Google Accounts. What we’re doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition enables us to customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser. It’s completely separate from your Google Account and Web History (which are only available to signed-in users). You’ll know when we customize results because a ‘View customizations’ link will appear on the top right of the search results page. Clicking the link will let you see how we’ve customized your results and also let you turn off this type of customization.”

The idea behind this change is to better the search results for the user, regardless of how it complicates the life of an SEO. I wonder if it will be well received or not. Actually, I wonder if it will even be noticed. It’s one of those silent types… like carbon monoxide. The typical searcher is NOT going to know enough (or care enough) to disable this type of recorded query from a discrete link in the upper right hand corner of their screen. They’ll leave it to the default setting and go about searching as they’ve always done. Nothing will change in how people go about searching, most of us will be oblivious that Google is slowly reshaping our results. However, those who aren’t oblivious, will likely be those who are calling their SEO consultants to “voice concern”.

So how does this change our SEO strategy? I think more than at any other time, “Content is King” now reigns supreme. The users will be that last layer of the Google algorithm and that means the quality of the content has got to be at the top of its game, surpassing the competition. Titles and description tags will need to be even more thought out to capture the clicks… Remember, a deep search of you on one day might return your site to Page 1 on a repeat query if you can engage your searcher with a 1-1 match of their intentions. Look to your website stats and traffic to guide your strategies. Also, I think brand building (on some level) will be even more crucial to this type of personalized search over time. If you think about what type of content will get pushed up first – it will likely be those recognizable brands and sites that are getting more clicks and working their way up in our results. Does this mean SEO is obsolete? Absolutely not! If anything, now more than ever you need to have a good SEO company (or in-house consultant) to help you make your next moves.

Is Bruce Clay an Internet Oracle? He spoke of big changes coming in search earlier this year. Perhaps he sums it up best…

“Ranking is dead,” says Bruce, recalling his words from his presentation. Going forward, he says you’re going to have to look at analytics, measure traffic, bounce rates, action, etc. SEOs will have to ask themselves questions like: – Did I get the conversion I was after? – Did I really deliver on the promise of SEO? Bruce thinks that in the first six months of 2009, we’re going to see a lot more implementation of behavior and intent-based search leading to a mindset of ranking is dead, and traffic is all that matters. 

So do we listen to Matt Cutts, do we just ignore the registration period? Mannix Marketing’s official standpoint is….  NO!

Matt explains in the video that the number of years out a domain is registered for has little-to-no significant affect on SEO. To him, the minimum registration period of one year is a long time. For normal sites with good quality content, domain registration should not be a factor… not really at all. Well not really at all doesn’t sound like nothing, does it? And it also leaves open the possibilities for future algorithmic updates.

Mannix doesn’t feel that the domain registration age plays a huge role… and an example of this would be when your domain comes close to the expiration date, we don’t just see the placements drop off. No, we feel that it’s very minor, but these minor details are what adds up to eventual success in the search engines. If there are 2000 checks that come under scrutiny for a website’s authority on a keyword phrase in a given search engine, don’t you want to make sure you’re passing as many of these as possible… even if they are minor?

Even if Matt Cutts is right, even if there is absolutely no current algorithmic check on the domain registration age… here are some reasons why you should still MAX your registration out:

• Protect your investment - By extending your domain name registration, you’re lowering the chances where expiration could come up and unknowingly lose control of your investment.
• Less to worry about - By keeping your registration periods longer, you don’t need to have to keep making sure you’re domain is safe every year or two.
• Saves money – The longer you register your domain, the cheaper it costs. These costs add up when you own multiple TLDs.

Matt Cutts is not going to come right out and disclose what all of the algorithmic checks are, he’s very “lawyerly” and well aware of what he’s passing along to the public. It’s up to a good SEO company to make inferences and decide what is and isn’t a good idea. And to Mannix Marketing, it makes a lot of sense to MAX out your domain registration period from an SEO standpoint, from a Webmaster’s standpoint and from a business investment standpoint… regardless of whether or not registration age applies to Google’s algorithm.

Now that we know who your target audience is, we now need to know how to go about finding them and being found by them.

The first tip I will talk about is on Twitter.com, a link near the top of the page called, Find People.

We’ll use the same target audience scenario from the previous post:

1. People who love, need or use different kinds of shoes
2. People who live in or near Rochester NY…and when you overlap these two sets, you get… 
3. People who love, need or use different kinds of shoes and live in or near Rochester – those most likely to buy from you…in addition, you may also want to target…
4. Industry peers (competitors) to share knowledge and peruse & pursue their established lists of followers. 

Find People is a search tool that sorts through Twitter usernames and their name. So if we search on ‘rochester’ (we are using the default tab, Find on Twitter), you will see something like this:

Since you are targeting everyone in Rochester, you should be following all of these Twitter users (don’t be too aggressive). You have to be a little careful with searching locations… just make sure the user is from your location.

Once you’ve exhausted your resources with Rochester, now we would move on to the other part of your target audience, ‘shoes’. When you are searching on shoes or sneakers or high-tops (be creative) or whatever your target phrase is, you’ll likely get some enthusiast accounts, but with how Find People works (searching on usernames & names), you will likely see many of your peers. It would be good to follow these accounts as well to exchange ideas. You can also spend some time going through their list of established followers who could also be your followers and… potential clients.

So that’s how we go about using Find People to…ummm, find people. Now let’s figure out how we can be found using the same tool.

A person who likely uses Find People is either browsing for a specific person/business that they know… or they’re searching on keywords of interest in hopes of discovering NEW people to follow. 

In our example, a person who loves shoes might go to Find People and type in ‘shoes’. Thus, your goal would be to come up under this search so that you can be found by this enthusiast, followed, and potentially sell them your products and services. 

Since Find People sorts through username and actual name, it makes sense that this is where you should be focusing some attention.

Let’s take the username… if you don’t already have a Twitter account, consider including a keyword as part of that username so that you can potentially be found for that phrase. In the example, you might want to choose a username of RochesterShoes or Rochester_Shoes, etc. The problem is most people reading this post (all two of you) probably already have an established username. So this is a bit more difficult to control, plus real estate on Twitter usernames are being eaten up like they were dot com names. You could always create a second profile, or after creating this second profile, redirect the original account to the new Twitter profile. This is not always the best answer though, and there’s actually another way (an easier way) that you can be found by your target audience.

Let’s take a look at my profile for a minute. If someone wanted to find me, they could type in my usename, yllib, and I would come up. They could also find me by typing in my real name, Bill Bouchard. But look at the actual name that I’ve entered… “Bill Bouchard – SEO“… if you do another search on the keyword, ‘SEO’, I’m currently coming up on the first page for that phrase. So someone who’s interested in SEO might go up to Find People, do a search, find me there, and potentially follow me. So now, I am reaching my target audience passively, less work… cool! So, to modify your name, click on the Settings link on Twitter and you’ll see the Name field (the first field on the page). There are character limits for the Name field [20]. The key to this is striking a balance between listing your name (or brand) while having enough characters left to include your keyword (aka.. your product or service).

So back to the orginal example, you would make the Name include the word ‘shoes’ if possible, you might even be able to include rochester if your brand name is short enough.

So we’ve seen how Find People is a good tool for doing basic searches for a target audience and also tips for getting found, but it does have its limits, namely you can only find people by their name. In the next post, I’ll get into some more  indepth data mining techniques that will help you really start to hone in on your target audience.