Search Enginge Marketing (SEM) and Optimization (SEO)

Any of you remember when Yahoo was one single web page? Back then, everything was a web page- no "sites" or "portals." Just everyone and some companies had a nifty "Home Page."

Back then, I held the #1 Yahoo/Alta-Vista result for "Crockett," because my Duke University Home Page was entitled, "Crockett... Crockett? Crockett!" This apparently tipped me just over the edge to beat out Crockett, TX.

Now let's fast forward. Anybody out there remember what a Google Dance was? Google Dance was the industry nickname for the exciting day when Google revised its search algorithm and updated its index- your big shot at getting a higher ranking! The time to test the results of your latest search engine marketing efforts! Everyone races to the computer as their cell phone alerts go off. "Google Dance! Google Dance!"

Google used to dance its dance very 6 months or so. Then it was 3. Then it was 1. Then things were happening every few weeks. And bi-monthly. Then suddenly, Google started dancing one day and never stopped! A constant updating, it seems.

The funny thing is how quickly we accept, expect, then DEMAND such new, improved technology. Case and point:

CDLLC is in the process of an aggressive search engine marketing campaign for a major e-commerce site (1MM+ products). The scope of such a campaign is too extensive for this blog, so let's only focus on the Google part.

• We optimize the page content for maximum relevance and therefore maximum rank in Google Search.
• All office and warehouse locations are entered into Google Maps with the maximum amount of relevant information.
• Google Local Business Center is utilized in a manner similar to Google Maps
• A standard-compliant XML site map is generated, and Google is notified
• And most important to this particular business's objectives, ALL products are entered into Google Products (formerly Froogle).

The way this works on the back-end is very similar to the site map. A standards-compliant XML file is generated, called a "Google Base Feed." An ftp account is procured from Google, and the base feed is and uploaded and registered. Smaller sites can enter one item at a time, or upload from their web browser, but once you get into the 100s of thousands, the FTP upload is required.

All of that said (hopefully some CDLLC clients benefited from that free tutorial), again, it is interesting how quickly we accept, expect, then DEMAND such new, improved technology. The aforementioned, promised case and point is as follows. Below is an excerpt from the Google Base Help Forum:

POST#1: Nov 17, 7:06 pm
Hello,
We've been
experiencing delays in the processing of your data feeds. As a result, items
remain in the 'Published...searchable soon'status for longer than normal and are
taking longer to appear inGoogle Baseand Google Product Search results.
While
we work on fixing this issue, you do not need to re-upload yourfeed. Once the
delays are resolved, your feed will process as usual.I'll be posting back to
this thread once I have status updates toreport.
Thank you guys so much for
your patience.
-The Google Base Guy

POST #2: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:01:16 -0800
(PST)
Hi,
This is a quick update to let you know that the issue
regarding itemsremaining in the "Published...searchable soon" status has
beenresolved. However, the issue regarding feed processing delayscontinues to
affect larger feed files. On a positive note, smallerfeeds under 1 MB are no
longer affected by the current processingdelays and you should see your feeds
processing as usual.
Thanks again for your patience and I will get back to
you with moreupdates.
-The Google Base Guy

This has me seriously frustrated. "You mean I have to wait 24 HOURS to see whether my feed was successfully processed???"

Oh, how greedy we get, just years after we used to accept a 6 month delay to see the results of our updates.

I'm pretty sure there's a lesson in humanity in here somewhere.

Crockett