Researching the buzz about this issue across the Internet, people are saying that Google ads far outperform Facebook ads, that Facebook needs to take marketing more seriously, and ultimately that this is disastrous news for Facebook investors.

HORRORS! But here’s what I’m wondering: when comparing Facebook to Google, are people making the mistake of evaluating numbers in a literal, apples to apples fashion? It’s really more apples to oranges.

Everyone is scandalized about Facebook’s lower CTR, and that this a “secret” Facebook doesn’t want to release. Well, of course Facebook has a lower CTR. This isn’t news.

If you expect the same CTR (or traffic, or online sales) from Facebook as Google, maybe you’re not looking at the right metrics. Social Media is about BRANDING, and metrics used to measure the ROI of social media correlate more closely with traditional, offline advertising.

• What’s the value of a billboard or magazine ad?
• What’s the value of a super bowl ad?
• What’s the value of Facebook PPC?
• What’s the value of Facebook engagement, without paid ads?
• What’s the value of Google PPC?
• What’s the value of Organic SEO?
• WHICH HAS THE BEST ROI?

These are not easy questions to answer. The Internet turned traditional marketing on its head because, for the first time in history, we suddenly were able to track user behavior down to the number of website visits or even the amount of money made with each visit.

Keyword-based marketing, whether organic or paid, turned marketing on its head even more because it engaged with searcher intent. Much further down the conversion funnel, these users are much likely to make a desired action because they are actively searching for your product.

Brand-based advertising, as opposed to keyword-based advertising, creates different results because it’s targeting users at different stages in the conversion funnel.

While you might not see the immediate ROI from a Facebook like or Twitter share, it’s sill important to note that brand-aware users are much more likely to make a future purchase. For example, users may be 71% more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals and prone to buying from companies they like or follow.

Can that eventual sale be easily tied to that initial social engagement? While there are ways to attribute a sale to the first click, but it’s still a pretty nebulous field of analytics.

General Motors clearly still sees tremendous value in Facebook, and will still be investing $30 million towards on its overall content strategy for Facebook. But instead of paying Facebook to attract users, they will address this on their own through creative content and campaigns. Kind of like choosing SEO over PPC.

But don’t SEO and PPC work best in tandem?

If GM must cut $2 billion in overall spending, it probably does make sense that Facebook ads would be the first sort of thing to examine. The ROI is harder to measure. But compared to what? TV commercials? Print ads?

Did you say $2 billion in cuts? Well, then GM is crazy to have cut their relatively miniscule $10 million spend with Facebook. You can’t choose the demographics of a magazine ad or TV spot with the surgical precision of a Facebook ad. And there’s no way you can track the end-user interaction or ROI at such a surgical level either.

When it comes to measuring user engagement and ROI, online advertising has traditional advertising handily beat. How ironic that *because* social media is so measurable, companies then decide it doesn’t work.

If I had $10 million to spend, I’d spend it on Facebook ads over print/TV in a heartbeat. IN A HEARTBEAT.

I’m not saying Facebook doesn’t need to step up its game (it really does) or offer improved options so it can better rival the Google Content Network. But it’s still a compelling offering that should not be dismissed lightly.

Written by Sarah Mackenzie.

Starting next week – any campaigns that you might have opted into “rotate evenly” mode will only stay on that setting for 30 days max. Afterwards, your ads will then automatically be changed  or “opted” (though I hate using that term since you have no option) into the “optimize for clicks” mode. If you made any adjustments to the ad copy creative, or add a new ad to your campaign, this will reset the clock back to 30 days again.

So even if you have a superior ad that’s delivering maximum CTR and converting at a high level, you’ll still have no choice. As advertisers, this isn’t the greatest move for you or your campaign. As we all know, Google makes money for all those ad clicks to the tune of billions in profit each year. This reminds me of seeing most “Google Optimized” campaigns I’ve seen in the past that were setup by Google. Mostly set to broad match keywords. Why? Because that drives the most money to Google. As does this move. Want to do true A/B testing for more than 30 days and have your ads rotate evenly? Good luck.

Google claims that this move will improve the user experience and remove ads that are less relevant – but this really is a move to optimize for more clicks for Google – plain and simple. Highest CTR doesn’t always mean highest conversions. Sure, 30 days seems like a reasonable amount of time to test new ads, etc but most savvy marketers don’t test results in time.

It’s also telling that Google’s announcement for this was short and brief - as if not to bring too much attention to it. Usually a big time change like this comes with lots of photos, excitement and arguments that this will benefit the advertiser. Sorry Google, but we’re not buying it.

If you’d like, there is a petition going here. In the meantime, get ready to set a lot of calendar reminders.

The hubbub began with a supposedly innocuous Matt Cutts’ statement (why Mr. Cutts, by now, doesn’t realize he can no longer make an innocuous statement is beyond me) in which he said, basically, that Google was going to begin to focus on “overoptimization.” Given that they’d already addressed issues such as keyword stuffing, link farms, article farms, crappy copy, and the like, well, we should be in a time beyond overoptimization, no? So, what? Is? He? Talking? About? What does that mean, man?

Add to this the strange tale of one Mr. Dan Thies, who via Twitter congratulated Matt Cutts on a recent Google update that hammered blog networks. Some folks (I’m guessing those who run/use blog networks) didn’t like this, and as a result decided to take down Dan’s site. Dan got an unnatural link notice in Google Webmaster Tools, then his site tanked in the SERPs. Oh, but also, he began using a new template. The waters are sufficiently muddied. Was it the template, or Link Bombing? Aaron Wall seems convinced it was the latter.

But really, how could this be? Google has long said that while bad incoming links won’t help you, they really can’t hurt you. Or, at least, they’re not going to make it easy for someone to hurt your site using that tactic. But then, they say participation in link schemes can hurt you. Huh? Plus, c’mon. If bad links can affect your site, why, someone (with a fair amount of free time on their hands, as is seemingly common with such folks) could get mad at you and aggressively build a bunch of crappy links using spammy anchor text, point them at your site, and sink it. Not fair. Not fair in an age in which there are apparently legions of people just waiting to get pissed off about something, anything. Are we all, now, walking on glass? Why would Google let this happen?

Have they, even? Rand Fishkin, often the SEO industry’s voice of reason, sure doesn’t think so. He’s so convinced that negative SEO isn’t a thing that he’s offered up both his sites (SEOMoz.org and RandFishkin.com) and said “do your worst, freaky hacker trolls!” And if anyone can take it, it’s Rand. Thing is, both his sites are crazy-strong. It’ll be interesting to watch, but it’s not as though it’s a mom and pop site bearing the brunt.

The worst aspect of this situation/nonsituation is the willingness, and even glee, of some folks in our industry to turn on others, to throw away any pretense of ethical, responsible behavior in order to get what they want. SEO is and has been, unfortunately, defined by the actions of our sleaziest brethren. Whatever way this turns out, the fact that someone’s even giving negative SEO a shot is no help.

• Being careful not to totally delete large sections of your website.
• Similarly, being careful not to delete copy from website pages.
• Carry over all Title and Meta Description tags.
• URLs & URL Structure: Don’t rename them unless you have to, and if you must, rename them to something search-friendly and that mitigates canonical issues.
• 301s: It’s crucial to 301 all old website URLs on a page-to-page basis.

HERE’S A SECOND ROUND of advanced tactics to ensure your new site is on a path to success:

1. Analyze Wireframes & Sitemaps

When Big Daylight works with an interactive design agency like FINE on a redesign, we are involved from the beginning. This means evaluating website wireframes, sitemaps, and more, to make sure the website structure and content will be able to support SEO efforts. The early stages of design are when SEOs must pay serious attention to the dangers of content and copy deletions. Vibility can tank when you delete assets that used to position, without taking steps to either carry over or creatively rebuild in other areas.

2. Analyze Category & Navigation Names

No category name or navigation link should slide by without a quick check for SEO goodness. Case in point – you may discover pages being linked to with the words “Click Here”, or “Widgets” (one-word) instead of “Widgets + Keyword”.

A redesign is your opportunity to leverage the benefits of smart internal linking. Of course, the user experience always comes first, but if there’s also a chance to squeeze keywords into anchor text, then go for it.

3. Analyze Internal Link Structure

We already touched on this in the previous article, but you must constantly work to keep an eye on navigation depth and breadth. In terms of depth, site navigation shouldn’t bury pages too many “clicks” from the homepage. 4 clicks away at most is a good general rule.

In terms of breadth, navigation should also link smartly out to similar pages, and avoid “orphan” pages that only have 1 or 2 internal links. Obviously you don’t want to link every page to every other page, but you DO want to make sure that each page has a reasonable amount of internal links pointing to it.

URLs that are buried and and also have a very small number of internal links risk not being indexed due to lack of page authority.

4. Be Content Aggressive
The more content the new site deploys, the better its chance to not only recover from the redesign, but surpass the performance of the previous website. This pertains not only to the amount of text on each page (watch out if your homepage only has 1 sentence of copy) but also the amount of overall content on the website as a whole.

Are you offering Application Development services, but only have one or two pages about this? For long-term success, envision MANY MORE pages.

Envision exquisitely detailed Product and Services pages. Envision White Papers, Thought Leadership, Case Studies, FAQs, and a Corporate Blog that has something really different to say. Envison Quality Content, and a LOT of it.

6. Keep A Close Eye on the Staging Site

As soon as the staging/development site is up, spider it (see Xenu’s Link Sleuth or Screaming Frog) and keep your eye on this baby. Look where the gaps are, and pass on the feedback because you’re sure to have a lot of it. Make sure those titles and metas are carried over, the content is optimized, the URLs named correctly, that Google Analytics is loaded, and more, more, more. You need to be ALL OVER that staging site. (See #10.)

8. Help The New Site Get Indexed

Aside from having 301s in place, there are also important steps to take to help the new site get indexed. Create an XML sitemap, and submit this in Google/Bing Webmaster Tools as well as your robots.txt file. Tell Google your website has changed. And while you’re at it, tell your customers via an email announcement as well as a blog post on your website. A press release couldn’t hurt either.

9. Repair Backlinks Where You Can

As referenced in our guide to changing your domain name, it’s important to follow up with webmasters linking to old URLs. That mention on Travel & Leisure’s website about your spa packages? That citation from CNN that reviewed one of your software products? Contact these people, and ask them to update links pointing to old site pages. 301s can only do so much.

10. BE INVOLVED. HIGHLY INVOLVED.

The most important thing to remember is to continually check in on progress. Don’t assume that just because the URL structure looked okay one week ago, it is still okay this week. Things can constantly change in the development environment, and mistakes/oversights can easily happen.

SEO for a redesign doesn’t mean passing feedback and then dropping out of the picture because you told everyone what needed to be done. It means consistently communicating with the copywriters, the designers, the developers, the project managers, and the client.

You will have to compromise at times to achieve a happy marriage of good design with good SEO – but it cannot be achieved without open communication and close collaboration.

Written by Sarah Mackenzie.

So I checked it out. And boy was I alarmed by the potent blend of SEO snake oil that I found. I wrote back and said, “Do not move forward with this company. I’ll explain. In fact, I’m inspired to write a blog post about this.”

My initial intention was to review basic Etsy SEO tips – but I soon realized that Etsy, working together with SEOMoz, has already posted fantastic resources, left and right, to help store owners position themselves online. Seriously Etsy – I am impressed.

So while I was able to point my friend in a safer direction, I realized that there was still something that Etsiers could be confused about. Namely, what NOT to do. How can you be sure you’re engaging in ethical marketing tactics, instead of unwittingly signing yourself up for a promotional spam program?

Here’s what to watch out for when it comes to the world of SEO:

• Guarantees: If you see someone splashing around the words “guaranteed” like a cheesy used-car dealer, this is a superb indicator that they are neither ethical nor knowledgable. To claim this is tacky and embarrassing – it’s essentially saying you are able to control the Google Algorithm at all times. The reality is, no one can 100% guarantee or promise a traffic increase, unless you’ve got Sergey Brin on speed dial. And even then….
• Submission to 75+ Search Engines: This tactic *might* have made sense back in 1996 when people constantly bounced back and forth between Ask Jeeves, Alta Vista, Netscape, and dozens of other engines. Fast forward to 2012: you do not need to pay for this. What a quaint idea! Chances are, your Etsy store is already being indexed JUST FINE in Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Also, Etsy themselves is doing everything they can to help engines discover pages too – just check out that robots.txt file.
• Crazy Low Price: Is the service ridiculously cheap? Say, a $40 one-time fee? Well, you get what you pay for. The ugly truth is that if someone charges an unusually low price for something, it’s probably because their services are of unusually low quality. If something really worked, they’d charge more.
• Lack of Contact Information: Be sure you know the physical address and phone number of the company you are engaging with. If the only thing you can find is an email address, that’s a red flag. Legitimate companies post legitimate, verifiable information about their business online.
• 5,000+ Backlinks, Whoo hoo! Watch out for companies that promise ridiculously inflated numbers of backlinks. Link building is good – every Etsy store needs incoming links to help boost its importance in Google. However, there’s a huge difference between ethical link building and link spamming that is against Google Guidelines.
• Linking You to a “Network” of Sites: Similar to the above, be careful of linking schemes that try to envelop you into a network of websites. These manipulative, artificial tactics are also against Webmaster Guidelines and can result in a penalty.
• Creates Additional Sites: Are you being promised other “promotional” or “mini” sites that can drive even more traffic to your Etsy Store? Again, beware. This sounds like an artificial tactic that creates unnecessary content or doorway pages designed to funnel traffic to your website in shady, unethical ways.

These are just a few examples of the types of shady tactics that SEOs might advertise. When considering whether or not to partner with someone to promote your Etsy Store, a good place to start would be asking whether or not they use the ethical tactics outlined in Etsy’s own Guide to SEO. If not, then you may want to steer clear.

Luckily for you, Etsy sincerely wants you to succeed, and has already provided a wealth of information on their site to help you do just that. Here’s wishing the best of luck to all Etsy Store owners in 2012 and beyond.

Written by Sarah Mackenzie.

If you’ve developed and deployed a sound email marketing strategy for your brand, you likely have a core group of users who regularly read your content and click through to landing pages or other Web properties. A second tier of contacts opens messages less frequently but does interact with content on occasion.

Many of these contacts have been in your database for years. All of them are familiar and comfortable with your brand. They have likely purchased your products or services in the past and might have even suggested your business to others. I received an email message over the weekend from Staples that offered a simple demonstration of how to use these loyal brand advocates to help you spread your message.

Your social media strategy already includes measures to grow your audience. Is your email database one of them? Aside from including links to your brand’s social profiles in your email messaging, have you asked your contacts to connect with you socially?

Sometimes a simple request is all it takes. In the email I received, Staples asks the question, includes a straight-forward call to action, and presents users with links to the Staples Facebook and Twitter profiles:

Below the main message, users are invited to connect with Staples via their mobile device:

Links to additional Staples social profiles follow the mobile app messaging:

The overall message here is simple: If you like our brand and want to hear more about what we’re doing, connect with us on your preferred social channels. Sound familiar? It should. It’s what we’ve been saying to customers to entice them to sign up for our email databases for years.

We’re now inviting these core customers to a two-way conversation. If we’re lucky, they’ll share the message with their own audiences, bringing new members to the community and new customers to our business.

It may be obvious for many of us to find and follow brands we like on our preferred social channels. But when it comes to loyal customers and brand advocates, it sure can’t hurt to ask.

Written by Nick Nerbonne.

If you’re using Google Analytics, and have it properly linked up to your Google AdWords account, you can easily find this data. It’s even easier if you’re using the “new” version of Google Analytics interface. This information has been available in the previous version of Google Analytics for a little while now, but was never all that easy to get to. By the way, the quick way of finding out if you’re using the new vs old version of Google Analytics is to look in the upper right hand corner of your browser, and it will say “new version” or “old version”. Clever, no?

If you’re using the old version, you can view this by going to Ecommerce –> Conversion Rate. Select your date range and then click on the clock icon. You’ll then need to sort by a graph and you can look at certain metrics such as visits, conversion rate, revenue, etc.

However, if you’re using the “new version”, it’s easier than ever to find this. Google must have figured this was a pretty important metric (which it is) and made it as easy to find as two clicks.

First, click on “Advertising” on the left side of your dashboard:

Next, expand the AdWords section within the Advertising section. You’ll then be presented with a variety of other options. Select “Day Parts”:

At this point, I’d suggest adjusting your date range to get at least a few months worth of data, provided you have that. In this example, we can see that the bulk of the traffic starts at 8 AM though midnight.

However, if you select another metric, such as Revenue for the same period, we can see that between the hours of 1 AM and 8 AM – there was ZERO revenue produced, yet ads were running and costing this particular account ad spend cost. Also, between 5 PM and 7 PM, where traffic was at it’s peak, there was also zero revenue.

SO NOW WHAT?

If you find yourself in this situation with your AdWords account – you have two options. You could pause specific ad campaigns or the entire account completely during that period of time is driving little to no revenue. This is easily done in the AdWords Interface under  Campaign Settings. Or you can lower the bid by a certain % during that same time period. Some folks want to be visible regardless of the time of the day, but if that traffic is costing them and producing little revenue, you might consider lowering your bid during that time period.

Next Steps

Take a few moments and look through your new Google Analytics data and ensure that you’re getting the most out of your advertising dollars.

If you’d like more help analyzing your Google AdWords performance and Google Analytics data, we’d love to talk to you!  Contact us and let us help you optimize your campaigns.

Written by Nick Perez.

As well as providing some great advice to those using this Google service, Ms. Ellis also brings up a larger issue upon which I’d like to further elaborate. Google Places, from the word go, has been terrible about communicating requirements with business owners who may or may not have chosen to be part of the service. In the beginning Google Local populated its listings by pulling from Yellow Pages and other resources, and also by simply allowing anyone to submit information. In fact, there was a time in which they were paying for information from local sources. As a result, their listings index became quite robust; however, a great deal of that information was incorrect.

Google tends to hide behind the idea that many of their services are free, and that this fact absolves them of complete accountability – you can choose to use them or not. This argument holds little water in the first place – when you’re attracting 70% of market share, it seems you have some inherent responsibility to ensure the product is doing the job you say it does. In the case of Google Local, though, that position is baseless. You’ve taken unverified information and are supplying it as a resource. You have a responsibility, here.

Now comes the fun part. Once a business owner found out (typically by accident; it’s not as though they were told) about their Google Local listing, they could “take ownership” and verify it. Good thing, because that’s the only way to correct bad info. In order to take possession of a listing you need a PIN, which can be delivered either via phone (from an automated service that could not (and still can’t) navigate a phone tree) or a postcard. Sometimes the PIN worked; sometimes it didn’t. Frustrating. Doubly frustrating when you find out that you’re unable to correct bad info. Infuriating when you find out that your potential customers are unable to find you, especially as Google Local started taking up more and more real estate on the first page of the SERPs. If your phone number in your listing was bad, well, it’s pretty easy for a customer to move on to a number that works.

So who can you talk to to get this worked out? How do you get in touch with Google Customer Service? Well, you don’t. There is no such thing. Google Local forums were filled with people who were frustrated to the point of legal action. There were threats beyond that. (Seriously, even though Google Places tried to lose all the archived forums (they really did; Mike Blumenthal had to step in and save them – see what I’m talking about?), they’ll still be available and I recommend reading them for both instructional and entertainment purposes. One guy actually went to Google’s offices to try to talk to someone – they had him escorted away by police. I guess you don’t talk to Google.)

When I first started actively working with Google Local, I had a client who had a main headquarters with a number of locations scattered throughout the U.S. All client contact requests went through either an 800 number or the main website, then were sent out to the appropriate location for follow up. Because this was a service-based business, none of the locations had a brick and mortar store, and so had no street address, at least one the owners wanted listed. Because Local self-populated, half the hundred or so local listings had either ludicrously incorrect information, or, somehow, the local service provider’s actual street address and phone number. We worked our asses off trying to get the right information in these listings, to make sure they contained pictures and info for local providers who hadn’t either sold off the business or, in at least one case, died. This was years ago, and I’d be surprised if the situation’s worked itself out now. Try explaining to a company CEO, COO, and CMO that there’s not only very little you can do to clean up their listings, but that it’s not likely Google will do anything, so they’ll just have to put up with near-constant calls from pissed off service providers. Forever.

I kept asking myself, coworkers, forum members – how was this not considered? How did this situation, which is freaking common, slip through the cracks at Google?

I’d like to think that, especially since Google is ceaselessly promoting local search, gauging the searcher’s local intent, taking up a ton of real estate with local search results, these issues are being more carefully considered. That Google will do a better job at providing an easy to use service for business owners. That they’ll stop creating seemingly arbitrary rules that they fail to properly communicate.

So I’ll keep thinking that.

Ready or not, the day has arrived. The Timeline version of your brand’s Facebook page will automatically go live today. Still haven’t updated your page for Timeline? We’ve got you covered. Click the blue “Preview” button at the top of your page and follow the steps below.

1. Cover Image

Your cover photo adds a visual impact to your page, enabling you to showcase your brand and create an immediate impression on users.

Cover images display at 851 x 315 pixels and must be at least 399 pixels wide. For the best presentation, choose an image at least 851 pixels in width. Larger images will be automatically re-sized to fit. Facebook prohibits including contact info, calls to action, discounts, incentives or similar messaging in cover images, so read the official guidelines before adding text to your cover image.

To upload a cover image from your hard drive, click on “Add a Cover” and select “Upload Photo.” You can also select an image from your page’s photo albums by selecting “Choose from Photos.”

2. Profile Image

Your existing profile image will remain in place, but make sure to position it so it displays properly on your page and in the News Feed. To do so, hover over your profile image, click on “Edit Profile Picture” and select “Edit Thumbnail.”

3. Tabs and Apps

Default landing tabs are no longer available with the Timeline format but can still be accessed by visitors to your page.  Photos, custom HTML tabs, and other Facebook apps are now accessed via a row of thumbnails below the cover image:

Edit the name of your HTML tab or Facebook app, add a custom thumbnail, or swap positions with other thumbnails by clicking the pull-down arrow to the right (see above) to enable editing. Click the editing icon of the thumbnail you wish to edit and select “Edit Settings.”

You can then change the name or image associated with the app or tab.

4. Review Your Timeline and Add Milestones

As you scroll through your Timeline you’ll see posts dating back to the day you created your page. Status updates, photos, and other posts can be highlighted, hidden from your Timeline, or removed altogether. Highlighting a photo, for example, expands the image so it spans both columns of the Timeline.

Find the post you wish to highlight, hover over the upper right corner, then click the star to highlight it. Click the editing icon to change the date, reposition photos, or hide the story.

Whether your company was founded a hundred years ago or a hundred days ago, start by adding your “Founded” date at the beginning of your Timeline. Click on “Joined Facebook” in the list of dates to the right of your cover image or scroll down until you reach the bottom, then click the editing icon in the upper right corner of the first story. Select the founding date and add a photo or background story, then click “Save.”

Add other important dates or events by clicking on the Timeline in the middle of the page and selecting “Milestone.”

With those basic steps your Facebook page is ready to publish. Scroll to the top of the page and click “Publish Now” to make your Timeline live.

Editing Your Page

Editing of Facebook pages is now done in the Admin Panel, found at the top of your page. Click on the Admin Panel button to the right of your cover image to access the admin area, then click on “Manage” and select “Edit Page.”

Other Features

Facebook has added a number of new features to pages with the Timeline update, including private messaging, interest lists and the ability to pin posts to the top of the page. Check out Facebook’s Product Guide for Facebook Pages for details on the new features.

What do you think of Timeline for Facebook Pages? Let us know in the comments what you like or don’t like about the new format.

Written by Nick Nerbonne.

How timely. Because over the past few days, online marketers have been all abuzz about Matt Cutts’ recent statements at a SXSW panel. These statements were in response to a question, “What about all the people who are sort of optimizing really hard and doing a lot of SEO?”

Normally we don’t sort of pre-announce changes, but there is something that we’ve been working on in the last few months…

And the idea is basically to try and level the playing ground a little bit. So all those people who have sort of been doing, for lack of a better word, “over optimization” or “overly” doing their SEO, compared to the people who are just making great content and trying to make a fantastic site, we want to sort of make that playing field a little bit more level.

So that’s the sort of thing where we try to make the Google Bot smarter, we try to make our relevance more adaptive so that people don’t do SEO—we handle that—and then we also start to look at the people who sort of abuse it, whether they throw too many keywords on the page, or whatever they exchange way too many links, or whatever they are doing to sort of go beyond what a normal person would expect in a particular area.

Let me get this straight – all the people who are making great content and trying to make a fantastic site soon won’t need SEO, Google can handle that?

1. Please don’t make sweeping statements like that.

Basically, we have no idea how to interpret these well-intended comments for a newbie audience. It only contributes to a semantical nightmare in a fractured industry with a serious image problem. An industry where the legitimate marketers fight for a place amongst the spammers, and where the outside world can rarely tell the difference between an ethical marketer or a spammer in the first place.

In an environment where no one can even agree on what SEO is anymore (Haven’t you heard? SEO is dead. Oh wait, it’s not.), it’s certain that we also cannot agree on what what constitutes “over optimization” or “leveling the playing field”.

2. Haven’t you already been targeting this type of black-hat behavior for years?

I would hope so. In fact, I was already under the impression this was very important to you! This is why you ask us to report on webspam. This is why you ask us to report on paid links. This is why your webmaster guidelines advise against keyword stuffing, linking schemes, and a host of other tactics that attempt to unfairly and unethically game Google.

We know that SERPs need to improve. Ethical SEOs continue to struggle against garbage ranking in Google, lamenting that how the good guys in SEO are made out to be liars.

3. What do you mean by over-optimization?

Google, I hope you do know who the good guys are. I believe that targeting spam and manipulative abuse of search engines is one thing. But webmasters that implement search-friendly tactics in a thoughtful and ethical manner deserve to be rewarded for this, not lumped in with spammers.

I BELIEVE SOME DESERVE TO HAVE AN EDGE ON THE PLAYING FIELD. I believe that sites with quality content deserve to have a further edge if they implement ethical SEO tactics like:

• Implementing 301 redirects in 850 pages after a redesign. (Do you know how much work that is?!)
• Adding descriptive alt text on images.
• Hand-writing custom Title Tags for 250 different pages
• Creating a linking structure that doesn’t bury important pages too deep.
• Marking up website data to work with Google Rich Snippets.
• Gracefully incorporating target keywords into amazing content that users love to read.
• Implementing pagination tags.

What worries me here is that Google seems to be saying that they’d like webmasters to only focus on content, not SEO.

I disagree. I think you need to focus on both quality content and SEO. I think Google is on the same page here, otherwise they wouldn’t even have a section inside Google Analytics called Search Engine Optimization. I’m just confused about the mixed messages, and curious to see what this next round of updates brings. Can you pleeeze, for example, kill those ridiculous exact-match domain names created to only rank for one keyword!? I digress…

On a separate note, I’m sure this is why Google doesn’t normally talk about algo updates in advance. Look at how we all freak out! Sorry Matt.

Written by Sarah Mackenzie.