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Over the past few months we’ve noticed that about 10% of the time, fewer than 10 results display on Google’s first search engine results page (SERP).  Why are fewer domains making the all-important first page of Google results?  Yesterday Google answered that question:

We’re continuing to work out the best ways to show multiple results from a single site when it’s clear users are interested in that site. Separately, we’re also experimenting with varying the number of results per page, as we do periodically. Overall our goal is to provide the most relevant results for a given query as quickly as possible, whether it’s a wide variety of sources or navigation deep into a particular source. There’s always room for improvement, so we’re going to keep working on getting the mix right.

In a recent article on SEOmoz Peter J. Meyers, the president of User Effect, points out that historically 1% to 4% of SERPs have displayed fewer than 10 results. But that percentage jumped to over 18% early last week. While some of these SERPs displayed eight or nine results, most displayed just seven.

Meyers notes that the SERPs impacted are mostly for branded keyword searches (i.e., searches for company names).  The SERPs for branded keywords tend to lack diversity in domains; that is, many of the top 10 results are from the same domain.  He speculates that Google eliminated three search results to increase domain diversity, or the variety of domains that rank on the first page.  He also points out that many of the SERPs displaying fewer than 10 links include sitelinks displayed within the top ranking.

What this Means for You

On the plus side, we already work with our clients to ensure domain diversity by maintaining active accounts on well-known social media sites and distributing content across multiple domains.  For example, the Google search results for “RepEquity” (pictured below) include the RepEquity Blog and RepEquity Labs sites in addition our main site, www.RepEquity.com.

This change could also mean a huge win for clients fighting false reports on sites like Ripoff Report, Scam.com and others.  According to a Search Engine Watch report, Google is looking hard at verified data when deciding what content ranks—or not. “Verified data in this case seems to be any source that has to go through a fairly rigorous verification process,” writes associate editor Danny Goodwin.  Sites with unverifiable sources of data, like Ripoff Report, may be penalized and have a harder time ranking on page one.

It’s not unusual for Google to favor content on certain domains that it deems to be highly relevant and credible.  On the SERPs that include fewer than 10 results, we are seeing evidence that Google may favor well-known domains like wsj.com or usatoday.com, even if the content (in this case news) is outdated.  This could negatively impact clients who may be haunted by negative press from long-ago indiscretions.  If this is a problem for your brand, please contact us.

Recommendations

As Google continues to work on the SERPs, these tips will help you weather the storm, even if Google returns to displaying 10 results on each page.

• Use Google Webmaster Tools to implement sitelinks for your branded pages.
• Claim your company name on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Ensure all of your web sites and microsites are content-rich and optimized for search.

If you have questions about the recent changes in Google’s SERPs or need help managing your brand’s online reputation, contact us.

Facebook page administrators are no longer restricted to targeting their posts by location or language. This week, the company announced that posts can now also be targeted by: age, gender, interested in, relationship status, language, workplace, education, workplace and location (city, state or country). This will certainly save some Facebook advertisers some headaches!

Following a massive security reach in June in which 6.5 million member passwords were hacked and posted online, LinkedIn plans to spend between $2 and $3 million in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2012 to update security.

Google may have just made a lot of politicians running for election in November very happy. The company now gives political campaigns the ability to target search, display, mobile and video advertisements by congressional district – often strangely-shaped areas that don’t always fall along zip code lines. Continue Reading…

During Facebook’s first earnings call on Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Sponsored Stories generate $1 million in revenue each day. To date, the Sponsored Stories are the site’s primary “social” ad product but during the call, Zuckerberg stressed the necessity of making all of the network’s ads more social.

This week SEOmoz released a new feature called MozCast, which shows recent Google algorithm changes a weather forecast format. The hotter and stormier the “weather,” the more changes to Google’s algorithm in the past 24 hours. Check it out!

Even though U.S. marketers spent upwards of $3 million on Facebook brand pages in 2011, a recent survey shows that customers who want to learn more about a product or service are more likely to visit a company’s website than its Facebook page (81.1 percent to 19.9 percent respectively). Continue Reading…

Life, liberty and the Internet? According to a United Nations’ Human Rights Council resolution passed Tuesday, Internet access and online freedom of expression are now considered basic human rights. All 47 members of the Human Rights Council, including China and Cuba, signed the resolution.

What do your brand’s colors have to do with its reputation? This fascinating infographic shows that a company’s colors can influence 60 to 80 percent of customer’s buying decision. RepEquity’s red color signifies energy and aggression and can be seen as both attention-grabbing and provocative.

School may be out for kids around the country, but not for the U.S. Congress. This summer, Facebook’s DC office offered Congressional offices some tips for how to keep their constituents engaged during the summer. Continue Reading…

Alli Lawrence recently joined us at RepEquity as a new SEO associate leaving her old job and her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A 2010 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Alli previously worked at University Bound.  When Alli started looking for a new job, she knew she wanted to be in a city and stay on the East Coast. She was drawn to Washington, D.C. by the city’s numerous networking and career opportunities for young professionals. For Alli, RepEquity stood out against other candidates because of its wide range of clients and unique team dynamic.

As a journalism major who never took an SEO class in college, why do you think schools are taking so long to incorporate SEO education into their curriculum?
To be honest, I think that a lot of university administrators are unaware of the multitude of SEO and marketing-related jobs now available to young professionals with computer skills. Universities are still basing their curriculum on traditional print marketing and haven’t fully taken into account the role that the Internet now plays in marketing. For young people who grew up on computers, we’re way ahead of them and want to learn about SEO, digital marketing and computer programming, but we don’t have the opportunity to do so at the college level.

How has your journalism background helped you as an SEO associate?
Writing is essential to SEO and my journalism degree taught me the different uses of language. Journalism encompasses all sorts of professional business writing, so even though I’m not a news reporter, I’m able to effectively communicate in different kinds of settings. Journalism writing also teaches you to be very straightforward. The basics of journalism writing, the who, what, when, and where, form a template for a keyword-enriched and optimized article.

What is one thing you wished you had learned in college that you think would help you today?
I wish I had learned more about computer programming and website basics. Had I known more about web development or HTML, it would have been immeasureably helpful when starting my career. Instead, I had to learn on the go at my first job.

What is one piece of advice you would offer to college students who want to pursue a career in SEO?
I would encourage them to pursue it, because there are a lot of opportunities in the field of SEO for young, smart adults to get ahead and be successful in a career that wasn’t around 10 years ago. I would tell them to keep learning and don’t be afraid to take on something like this. They’re going to have to create their own SEO degree by taking a well-rounded selection of journalism, computer science and business marketing classes. One day, universities will finally make an all-encompassing SEO major, but not yet.

What is your greatest SEO moment to date?
Any time I see results, it feels like a huge accomplishment. Sometimes with SEO you can work and work and work, and nothing happens. But when I come into work and check the rankings for a difficult keyword and see that my site made a significant jump, it all starts to make sense. Those little successes build up over time and that feeling of accomplishment is why I love this industry.

What is your favorite Excel formula?
Since I write most of my title tags in Excel, I find the character count formula to be extremely helpful. It allows me to play with and tweak tags more easily than having to copy and paste my work into an online character count program.

What do you like most about working at RepEquity?
I plan on working for small companies for the rest of my life. In small, start-up companies, you get to do and be exposed to so much more. I much prefer spending my time working with a team of two or three individuals than a team of 50. Plus, at smaller companies you’re not lost in a sea of cubicles spending half the day preparing for meetings. At RepEquity specifically, I feel like each employee is given a lot of freedom. We are encouraged to use our brains, to be creative and to dream up new ideas. Even better, we’re allowed to pursue those ideas past the conception stage and we can actually see them become a reality.

What is one thing on your bucket list now that you live in Washington, DC?
I went down to Old Town last weekend and had lunch overlooking the river and decided that I need a boat, or a friend with a boat.

Please join in the RepEquity office debate: Diet or regular Coca-Cola?
Diet.

How many times have you gotten lost since you moved here?
97.