Read a very interesting post this morning about Google’s “Did You Mean” Feature article at SERoundTable.com. Of course, the interesting part is not me reading a post from Barry’s blog, I probably spend too much time reading the blog to keep up with the good, bad and ugly. When I read discussions like these, my mind seem to start wandering and coming up with strange ideas,theories, whatever you call them - but definitely not prophecies (I won’t predict the end of the world in 2012!)

According to a e-commerce owner selling “ecotrimmer”, website www.ecostoreinc.com, in a discussion - claims that sales decreased due to results being pushed down the main results page of Google. While I agree with this theory, I was curious enough to look deeper into possibilities on why Google’s algorithm might add “Did You Mean” feature as part of the results page, resulting in pushing Ecostoreinc.com down the result listings.

For all intent purposes a search for “ecotrimmer” returns this:

I am very bad at taking screen shots - forgive the blur. But as you can see here also, ecostoreinc.com is listed way below the fold.

The Claim:

In all due respect, Ecostoreinc.com says that

It is a propane powered yard trimmer (as opposed to gasoline) and when you type in “ecotrimmer” into Google, our company, http://www.ecostoreinc.com/ shows up as either #1 or #2…

Is there a way we can convince Google that ecotrimmer is a word and that people will be searching for this product?
It’s appeared on television, radio, trade shows, and has plenty of growing attention that doesn’t need to be confused with Echo Trimmer.

Yes, there are plenty of growing attention in the mass public. And absolutely doesn’t need to be confused with Echo Trimmer, which is a different product - but do you think Google’s algorithm really knows that in context? I doubt it - that’s why you’re seeing this happen…BUT BUT BUT…here’s a more quantitative look at things.

Let’s Dive In:

Inbound Links

I performed the basic link:www.ecostoreinc.com vs link:www.echo-usa.com and at the time of this post,

Ecostoreinc.com

Echo-USA.com

So even though it’s only 48 vs. 1 - that’s 48 times “more relevant” in Google’s eyes.

Site Content:

Comparing the content of the homepages, it is apparent that Echo-USA.com has a slightly upper hand in terms of Navigation, Content and Context.

SEO 101s:

I will not talk about Echo-USA.com because it’s not about them. Rather, EcoStoreInc.om. I looked at the source code and found no traces of <h1> tag. Nevermind what weight <h1> has in what circles of SEO, but that’s a very basic element that is missing.

How Old Is Your Site:

According to the Wayback Machine - echo-usa.com dates back to the year 2000.  Ecostoreinc.com - you have no history. So pinning Google to say that your site is pushed down for a term you say is relevant because of mass demand, doesn’t help - while it would help if your buyers spread your site across the internet like wildfire to promote this hot new product, but to solely rely on Google to find relevance - in this case - you have better chance at winning the Lotto

Are you Confusing Google?

In the Google result from the screenshot, it looks like http://www.ecostoreinc.com/yard/lehr-ecotrimmer-detachable-straight-shaft.html?vmcchk=1 is the URL that is indexed by Google.

How is that URL different than the content of the homepage? Am I missing something here? It looks like you’re shooting yourself in the foot with duplication of the homepage - that’s already lacking in content.

I love Images too!

But in proportion. Using this whopping image

to promote your highly touted new product doesn’t help much when it comes to Google finding out about it does it? The little paragraph inside the photo is valuable - and is what differentiates and sets you apart in the eyes of Google from other sites.

The Advice:

My friendly advice to you is to make sure

• you have properly optimized your basic SEO elements
• use text whenever you can
• avoid images because you’re new in the market, you need all the help you can and Google needs all the content it can get from you to signal your product’s relevance and context in the marketplace
• If you’re using Joomla, there are plenty of extensions that can help you improve navigation, SEOs, structure, sitemap, etc. Use them!
• You need to send Google all the right signals - or else they’ll think you could be something else - it’s like sending all the wrong signals to a girl you want to date!

Free Lunch

Hope this little quasi audit will help you

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After reading a post over at shoemoney about deadly sins of money-seekers, which was in turn inspired by the seven deadly sins series from the History channel. I decided to take some time today, sit down and come up with a list of seven things I consider to be the deadly sins in our world of SEO. Click here to read more

I just had one of the best, error-free (so far) upgrade for WordPress from 2.5 to 2.7!

So I’m using QuickPress for the first time…this is cool, very Twitter like, except unlimited characters

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This article is one of the worse articles I’ve ever come across on a publication, besides the other bullshit article about investing advice from Robert Freeland over at SeekingAlpha.com. Click here to read more

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For those who are in online marketing, specifically SEM, face the challenge of delivery targeted ads to the right audience at the right time for the right product. All this in hopes of driving traffic and converting that user for revenue of some sort. But for some companies, this holiday season calls for a higher cause. Click here to read more