Search Engine Optimisation BlackDog

Note : this is just more a little mind wander, rather than an actual Google product, but it’s one that I can really could foresee them producing.

The next thing from Google

I’m thinking out loud here, while looking at my credit card bill earlier today I am really quite surprised that Google hasn’t launched their own version of a credit card. They already have a payment gateway, google checkout, which can provide data on consumer spending processes. But it is limited to online transactions. I’m sure that offline transactions, and the data set of

• what people buy with the cards
• where they are when they purchase
• what time of the day they purchase
• what their average purchase amount is
• frequency of purchasing at a location
• etc.

could nicely be tied in with the data on into

• how they search (google search)
• use a phone (google voice)
• use broadband
• use email (Gmail)
• use health care (health.google.com)
• etc.

to allow them to create a comprehensive profile of a person, and ultimately target ads to people with products that  now that they like to buy.

Again this would align with their strategy to organise the worlds data. hen I see Google touching into these markets with their recent  credit card comparison tool for the UK, I really start to think that it could be a possibility.

We’ve seen how they will soon destroy the GPS industry with their Google Maps Navigation (which I wish would be launched in Europe, so please hurry up) to provide free turn by turn directions to users instead of having to buy rather expensive GPS devices. Google entered the market under the radar so to say, by licencing the content until they were in a position to use their own. Maybe with the comparison tool google will be able to see what offers interest consumers most, is it a low APR , balance transfer or rewards ?

Ways to make the Google Credit Card attractive

I’m sure they will want to avoid another backlash like they got from the launch of Buzz earlier this year, so it will have to be something people are willing to trade their data for. Most cards in the United States don’t have an annual fee, unlike European cards, so I don’t think that a no-fee card would be a such an attractive proposition. And offers of points, air miles and cash back are also quite standard. To catch the attention of the public it would probably need to be something significantl that people wouldn’t mind their purchasing data being analysed. My thoughts that it would be something with an extended credit limit, lower balance, and then tied in with another google product like say a free phone for example. Again these are just some random thoughts on what they could do.

One other possible entry into the market would be to purchase one of the smaller credit card companies, like say Discover.

After Google Credit Card

And what will Google do after that. Could Google start to be an cheap energy provider or even a  bank ? Sure why not ! At the end of the day it’s all data.

This question “Should a good SEO company rank for [SEO] ?” has popped up a number of times when I meet people to discuss SEO. Also for some SEO firms it’s a point of boasting or a sales pitch, saying that they can rank for some great terms like :

• SEO
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Search Engine Optimization
• SEO consultant
• etc.

Note: I’m not slamming anyone company in these examples, well maybe one, but this is not the point of the post. I want to give some tips on picking a SEO company so that you know the right questions to ask and know when someone is pulling the wool (a little) over your eyes.

Reality Time

A sad fact in this matter is that people searching for [SEO] are more likely to be other SEO companies, rather than potential clients looking for some SEO help. So the fact that they rank for SEO probably doesn’t even help their bottom line. Here is a little comparison between the number of searches for [SEO] and the number of searches for [cake recipe] using a popular enough keyword [house prices] as a scale. This graph relates to the worldwide view rather than just Ireland.

It just can’t be that there are similar enough numbers of people looking to bake cakes, as there are people looking for information on SEO. My tip would be if a company says they rank for a keyword, give it a check on google trends or on google keyword tool for adwords to find out exactly how popular it is.

Looking at the amount of enquiries I got last year, and the % of them which came from the keyword [SEO] I would have to say it was close to zero. I would hazard a guess that the a lot of my manual comment SPAM for SEO tools and link building etc, is from dubious firms putting these keywords into their browser and going through the first few pages of Google results to find some links. So the fact that a company ranks for [SEO] doesn’t really help them, rather it probably wastes a bit of their resources, unless they are using it for bragging rights.

Final Thoughtson hiring a SEO company

If you are going to hire a SEO company, ask more about what they do and how they do things. What is their approach to site structure ? And how to they go about procuring back links ? Don’t be fooled when a company says that they are are #1 or #2 for a particular {keyword}, and therefore they must be good and they will be able to get you to rank at a high position too. Rather, ask for real life cases they have worked on, and what the resulting traffic increase has been because of their SEO efforts. Request Google Analytics data (or some other statistical report) of before and after the SEO campaign, and if necessary verify with their client that the SEO company has actually done this.

An aside : And oh, here are our SERPs for SEO so we do rank somewhere, but just not that high, but then again we are not looking for new clients, so that’s okay.