All these days, when there is a search for an organisation, eg Yahoo, the results used to show one result from their website and then results from other sites with the information on Yahoo.

With the change made by Google, the results now show multiple results from Yahoo website. In some instances, there are as many as eight results shown from the same site. This change is tactical and is going to result in the following:

1. Users are going to see more irrelevant results on page one and hence will be tempted to click on the ‘Sponsored results’ on the right side, as it gives them more options to choose from. This will result in increase in the profits for the Adwords program through which Google shows the sponsored results.

2. Users are going to see less of Search Engine Optimized sites and hence the value of Search Engine Optimization will go down.

3. Users are going to be tempted to getting used to clicking the Adwords regularly thus enabling this habit and hence raising the value of Google stocks

Ultimately, it appears Google is bent on showing us how to search and it is because of their sheer dominance in the online world.

The idea was to find out the behavioural pattern of the crawlers from the search engines. The exact tests and the results are given below.

Once I started writing one or two posts a day and continued that trend for two weeks, I noticed that the crawlers were coming back to our site every two hours.

After the two week period, I gave a gap of one week and blogged only once in a week or 10 days. At that point, it took about two to three days for the blogs to show up on the site.

Then I started blogging again almost every day and we realized the crawler was back almost every day. I kept reducing the gap and yesterday was the final test where I blogged every two hours or so. I kept taking screenshots of the search results to time it exactly and in some cases, I did notice the crawlers updating their indexes within ten minutes (once seven minutes from the time of the post and once in nine minutes from the time of posting.)

From this experiment, here are our recommendations for any one who is sincerely interested in taking up blogging seriously:

I Blogging Recommendations

1. Focus: Identify and stick to a topic of your interest. Focus all your blog posts to be around this topic of interest that you picked.
2. Frequency: Stick to a specific frequency between blogs. In other words post regularly with approximately steady intervals between each blog. Eg. Every week, Every day, every two hours, etc. Plan and stick to a time frame that suits you the most, so that the readers are also able to set their expectations on when to expect your next blog post.

Note: We used WordPress with SEO pack installed and perma links enabled. This combination has given the maximum visibility into any blog for SEO.

Hope this helps. Please feel free to let us know if you need any help with any of these ideas given above.

The initial post (Test1) was crawled within three hours and the next post (Test2) was crawled within one hour of posting.

We are now doing this final test (Test 3) and based on the test results will post the observations.

Sorry about the overload of the posts, but it should be worth the time as it is intended to provide us concrete insight into this with real data points.

This shows that the crawlers come back more than one in the same day.

Now that the initial test is showing up in less than two hours, I am trying to find out the exact frequency of the crawlers. This will help us optimize our blogs and also pass on this knowledge to our clients in their blogs.

Stay tuned for the test results.

This morning I had posted about the Long tail concept on two blogs, one related to the JK Divorce Entrance video and another one explaining about the long tail concept itself.

I just noticed that both the posts are already indexed by google. In order to complete an experiment to see the time taken by any of our posts to google, I am posting this blog. I hope to track after 15 minutes or so, to see if this also gets indexed.

Based on the results, we can come up with many inferences and we should also be able to replicate the same pattern across any blog – as long as the blog follows the same policies we follow:
- blog in specific intervals (eg once in a week or once a day, etc)
- write on a topic of interest/focus
- write for yourself and your audience, not for search engines

Will update you shortly.

Ebay and YouTube are perfect examples of websites which have capitalized on the long tail concept. Hence I prefer to use these two sites as references while trying to explain the long tail concept.

Ebay thrives on the fact that there are millions of products on its site, each generating a very low amount of revenue. That is much better than 100 top brands generating good revenue. (The million products together will generate much higher revenue for Ebay than the 100 top brands put together).

Similarly, YouTube has millions of home made videos each of which generates a few clicks. Together these clicks are much more than the clicks of the top videos posted by branded artists and labels.

In simple terms, long tail refers to the fact that the sum of the items in the tail generally tends to be more than the quantity available in the rest of the curve.

We have used long tail concept in some of the websites that we have developed and managed in the past. In Music Plugin, we optimized the site to show up on page one rankings of search engines for any album name followed by the word ‘songs’. This gives a perfect opportunity for users searching for any album to come to the respective album page on Music Plugin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail has a much more detailed explanation of the long tail concept.

Please do write to you if you are thinking of leveraging this concept in your future projects.

This brings a very interesting fact to light about the viral marketing strategies we were discussing earlier in the original post. If one product can generate such a huge viral marketing effect, it is quite easy for others to piggy back on its success and get a part of the pie (pie here refers to the page views available for users who are ready to watch videos).

Extrapolating this concept, theoretically it should be possible for any one to actually create a bunch of such videos and piggy back on the original concept. It might end up in a variation of the long tail concept that is known to generate more returns than the key original concepts. In this example, if such entrance videos continue to be popular and recorded and uploaded by folks, it might create a community of ‘entrance videos’ (hint: domain name is available, do let me know if you want me to register it for you) and people might start uploading such dances for various types of things considered serious in nature (eg. job interviews, Senate/Assembly discussions, deal negotiations, etc).

Time will answer. Lets wait and see.

Some visitors here might not be very familiar with the long tail concept. Will write about it shortly along with an example.

JK Divorce Entrance Dance video here for your viewing pleasure

The interesting element in this video is that in the past 24 hours three people have shown me or spoken to me about this video.

This is one more example of how viral the online market it. Word of mouth appears to be the most time tested marketing strategy on the internet and many smart online business strategists are already taking good advantage of this.

You can watch this video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Once I read somewhere about the five key things to focus on, if we want to leverage this ‘viral marketing strategy’. They are:
1. Increasing linkability
2. Making tagging and bookmarking easy
3. Rewarding inbound links
4. Helping your content travel
5. Encouraging Mashups

This youtube video shows how it has indirectly made use of all five points listed above

I would love to write about each of these points one days. Stay tuned.

This partnership will make their combined search strengths as the best competition to date to the Google Search monopoly. Even now, Google controls over 60 percent of the search market share, but this partership might change that landscape.

The official communication below:

Microsoft, Yahoo! Change Search Landscape
Global Deal Creates Better Choice for Consumers and Advertisers

SUNNYVALE, CA and REDMOND, WA — 29 July, 2009 — Yahoo! and Microsoft announced an agreement that will improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry. In simple terms, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

For Web users and advertisers, this deal will accelerate the pace and breadth of innovation by combining both companies’ complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft’s competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the Internet.
Under this agreement, Yahoo! will focus on its core business of providing consumers with great experiences with the world’s favorite online destinations and Web products.

“This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development,” said Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz. “Users will continue to experience search as a vital part of their Yahoo! experiences and will enjoy increased innovation thanks to the scale and resources this deal provides. Advertisers will also benefit from scale and enjoy greater ease of use and efficiencies working with a single platform and sales team for premium advertisers. Finally, this deal will help us increase our investments in priority areas in winning audience properties, display advertising capabilities, and mobile experiences.”

Providing a viable alternative to advertisers, this deal will combine Yahoo! and Microsoft search marketplaces so that advertisers no longer have to rely on one company that dominates more than 70 percent of all search. With the addition of Yahoo!’s search volume, Microsoft will achieve the size and scale required to unleash competition and innovation in the market, for consumers as well as advertisers.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the agreement will provide Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, the scale necessary to more effectively compete, attracting more users and advertisers, which in turn will lead to more relevant ads and search results.

“Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers, and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company,” said Ballmer. “Success in search requires both innovation and scale. With our new Bing search platform, we’ve created breakthrough innovation and features. This agreement with Yahoo! will provide the scale we need to deliver even more rapid advances in relevancy and usefulness. Microsoft and Yahoo! know there’s so much more that search could be. This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.”

“This deal fits the long-term strategic direction of Yahoo! to remain the world’s leading online media company and Carol Bartz has the full and unanimous support of the Yahoo! Board behind this deal,” said Roy Bostock, chairman, Yahoo! Inc. “This is a significant opportunity for us. Microsoft is an industry innovator in search, and it is a great opportunity for us to focus our investments in other areas critical to our future.”

The key terms of the agreement are as follows:

- The term of the agreement is 10 years;

- Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms;
Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology.

- Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.

- Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.

- Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology.

- Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites.

- Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88% of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first 5 years of the agreement.

- Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.

- Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country.

- At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million.

The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

The agreement does not cover each company’s web properties and products, email, instant messaging, display advertising, or any other aspect of the companies’ businesses. In those areas, the companies will continue to compete vigorously.

The transaction will be subject to regulatory review. The agreement entered into today anticipates that the parties will enter into more detailed definitive agreements prior to closing. Microsoft and Yahoo! expect the agreement to be closely reviewed by the industry and government regulators, and welcome questions. The companies are hopeful that closing can occur in early 2010.

The companies have established a website at http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com to provide consumers, advertisers and publishers with additional information about the benefits of the agreement.

Conference Call – 5:30 a.m. PDT, Wednesday, July 29
Yahoo! and Microsoft will host a conference call with Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss the agreement at 5:30 a.m. Pacific/8:30 a.m. Eastern Time today.

To listen to the call, please dial 1-866-515-2908 in the U.S. and Canada; +1-617-399-5122 international, reservation number: 47968026. A live webcast of the call can be accessed through Yahoo!’s Investor Relations website at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/results.cfm.

The companies have also established a website at http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com to provide consumers, advertisers and publishers with additional information about the benefits of the agreement. In addition, an archive of the webcast will be available through the same link. An audio replay of the call will be available for two weeks following the conference call by calling 1-888-286-8010 in the U.S. and Canada; +1-617-801-6888 international, reservation number: 91217610.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures
This release refers to operating cash flow (operating income before depreciation, amortization of intangible assets, and stock-based compensation expense, or OCF), which is a non-GAAP financial measure. The most comparable GAAP measure is income from operations. The estimated annual OCF benefit of $275 million included in this press release is the estimated annual benefit in income from operations of $500 million less approximately $225 million of estimated annual savings in depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation expense.

The idea of any website is to provide relevant and meaningful data to the visitors. Google and other search engines are constantly searching for such websites to be displayed in its search results whenever visitors to google look for keywords related to this website.

Though SEO is a series of steps meant to optimize a webpage/website in order to facilitate the searching and indexing of the site by the search engines, the commercialization of SEO has made it into a business of its own, and is not considered by many as a integral part of any web site development.

At Auro Infotech, we have made SEO as a part of our core set of tasks to be delivered on every project. The following are some of the basic SEO related items developed by our developers and checked by the QA team:
1. Tags, keywords, description, etc in place in each page
2. Headings and sub headings given
3. Keyword density on the page is measured right
4. Javascripts in external files if possible
5. Unique Page titles on each page on the site
6. All www links are redirected using 301 redirect to avoid www

Did we miss anything out? Let us know what you think.