A change is in the works at Google that’s going to leave a bunch of marketers wondering, “What the heck just happened to my SEO strategy?”

Last week Google announced a change in its search algorithm that will treat your search results like produce at the grocery store, ranking them according to “freshness.”

According to Google, this change will impact about 35% of its searches. That comes out to roughly a billion searches per day – maybe more.

Building on Google’s “Caffeine” update – an indexing system that’s been tested and distilled over the past year – the new algorithm automatically ranks fresh content higher when it’s related to recurring events or hot topics.

For example, if you were to search “World Series,” Google would automatically assume that you were searching for information about this year’s Fall Classic – not the 1911 World Series.

If you don’t like old and moldy search results (who does?), then you’re going to like the new algorithm feature. If you’re a digital marketer whose content has passed its expiration date, you’re going to want to change your approach…

You’ll need to adopt a farmer’s market strategy that includes more fresh-picked content. You may even need to plant a garden.

In other words, it’s time to get prolific…

The new algorithm is part of Google’s mission to favor the most timely and legitimate content. If the majority of your traffic shows up to read reviews about the latest smart phones, or the hottest trends in real estate, you better make sure that’s what you’re providing.

Fresh content is key… a strong social media push wouldn’t hurt either.

Promoting your freshest content by linking to it via Facebook and Twitter will help users find their way to your hottest leads. This traffic will help Google know that your content is not only fresh, but authoritative as well.

Ultimately, it’s about getting the best, most up-to-date search results. That’s what Google is about and that’s why they’ve been so successful. So don’t be discouraged.

Most of your competitors won’t even take notice of this trend. And the majority of those who do will bitch and moan about it… or even try to fight it.

That creates a huge opportunity for you. Strive to be the best, most up-to-date resource in your space and you’ll be rewarded by Google’s massive ranking system.

I ran across this just the other day and had to make mention of it.

Why would you choose SEO over PPC? A recent case study done by a professional SEO company reveals some very convincing answers.

Fact #1- 5 months of intensive SEO work was done  for a company at the cost of $4,000 (total).

Fact #2- The company went from 10 unique clicks/day to 800 unique clicks/day in that period of time.  A total of about 30,000 clicks over 5 months.

Fact #3- After the 5 months of SEO work stopped, the clicks still come in steadily at about 700/day.

Fact #4- 700 clicks/day would come to about $252,00 worth of Adword generated clicks in a year’s time.

Fact #5- The company paid only $4000 and they’re getting the same amount of clicks that $252,000 would get you in one year.

Long after the SEO work was done, the clicks still roll in! In this case, it shows that SEO is not only cheaper, but long lasting as well.  And even though the results aren’t as instant as PPC, the hard work of laying a solid foundation can definitely pay off.

Do you choose SEO over PPC, or visa versa?  Comment below and let me know what you think about this case study.

…hello Google “Placement Targeting”.

Don’t worry, Google Site-Targeting isn’t going anywhere…it’s just getting a name change and a face-lift.

NOTE: If you haven’t heard of Google Site-Targeting, it’s “the other half of AdWords” that almost no one ever talks about. Essentially, Google Site-Targeting (now Placement Targeting) is just like traditional Google AdWords, only instead of bidding on keywords you bid on specific webpages that you want to advertise on. This allows you to take your marketing beyond the Google search engine, and unlike appearing in Google “Content Network” YOU get to choose the sites you want to appear on and where you want to appear.

Until recently, Google Site-Targeting only supported CPM (or cost per impression) bids, so as with traditional banner advertising, advertisers were charged every time their ad was shown (as opposed to PPC where you’re only charged when someone clicks on the ad). Well now it appears that Google is letting their advertisers bid on a cost-per-click basis

You can see what Google has to say about these changes by going here:

https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=77787&hl=en_US

I’ve always believe that Google Site-Targeting was an under-used and unappreciated traffic generation tool, but this change to allow CPC bidding will no doubt change that. So, if you haven’t tried out Google Site-Targeting…err…Google PLACEMENT-Targeting, now is the time to do it!

If you already have an AdWords account, just login and click the “placement-targeted” link (which is right next to the “keyword-targeted” link) in the New Campaign section. If you look around I’m sure you’ll be able to find it.