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Google & Yahoo Update
Here at Advanced Access we are committed to your growth and
success. In our weekly marketing tips we like to keep you updated
with the latest news, trends, and ideas to help you make the most
of your website. Recently we have seen some major transformations
in the major search engines. These changes have been occurring
over the past few months, but this week brought a significant new
Yahoo! revelation.
If you regularly search on the Google or
Yahoo!
search engine, you might notice that your results have been
shifting during the past few months. In one of our
December Marketing Tips we reported that Google implemented
the 'Florida Update' in November of 2003, which sent many free
listings out of the search engine ranks. Google continued to make
changes to their database with the implementation of the next
change - the 'Austin Update' - to the frustration of many
webmasters and searchers. The real estate industry was hit hard,
with the exception of very few extraordinarily content rich custom
websites. After the Austin Update, when searches were performed
in Google, many of us were in the position of not finding what we
were looking for.
Google’s database fed into the other search engines such as
Yahoo!,
AOL, and Netscape, giving them a whopping 77% market share of all
searches performed on the Internet. The updates that Google
continued to implement caused organic, or free listings, to be in
a state of constant change. Not knowing what to do, many people
started to advertise with Google AdWords or Overture which brought
in dedicated traffic to their websites and converted into buyer or
seller leads. This entire process drove frustration with Google
to such heights that the news about
Yahoo! converting to its own search engine some
time in the first quarter of 2004 was welcome news to many people.
With this
Yahoo! change looming on the horizon, the search engine industry
received word of another update at Google, entitled the 'Brandy
Update'. These new results, rumored to be appearing on the main
database of Google, were a welcome change after the devastating
results of last November. This especially applied to the real
estate industry. Discussions ran wild in our own Advanced Access
Forums regarding the latest positions for all of our individual
trendsetters who are constantly improving their websites with the
use of the new Classic Package 3.0.
The results from the Brandy Update are now in place and they have
filtered over to the Google index over the past week. The search
engine community had also been forewarned of the constant updates
back in December at the Chicago 'Search Engine Strategies
Conference & Expo'. Craig Nevill-Manning, Senior Research
Scientist for the Google, reported in the ‘Meet the Crawlers’
session,
"Google is constantly a work in progress. It might take a few
months for the search algorithms to adjust and there are several
more updates coming up. The sites that continue to be affected
are the ones that offer no benefit to the online consumer
searching."
At the same time on Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Yahoo!
made an official announcement that they released a brand new
search engine. Speculation had it that
Yahoo! would be using the Inktomi database that they had purchased
last year. This is now not the case as
Yahoo!
reported that they have developed their own search engine,
although the results look very similar to the Inktomi results with
very few changes.
The Share of United
States Searches
August 2003, comScore
Google – 32%
Yahoo – 26%
AOL – 19%
MSN – 17%
AskJeeves/Teoma – 2%
Overture – 1%
Altavista – 1%
Before the new Yahoo! Search engine was established, Google
distributed all their results to Yahoo and AOL giving them a huge
77% market share, according to comScore in August 2003. Now, the
market share has dramatically changed, providing a better balance
in search results between the top search engines.
We now look forward to 2005 or 2006 when MSN is also rumored to
come out with its own proprietary search engine that is currently
under development.
Read the following from real estate
professionals who are using Advanced Access' Marketing Tips to their advantage:
"I just wanted to thank you. The information I received today will help my website and business. I really appreciate the extra effort you went to to make sure I knew how to use the site and take advantage of features that did not cost me nay more money. You truly have a customer service oriented company. Thanks Again... Patrick" Patrick Smith
"You have always responded when I have had a problem (which is extremely rare) and I really appreciate. I get compliments on my website all the time from customers. The only thing I can ask of you is to just keep on doing what you are doing."
Libby Lightsey
Advanced Access
8101 East Kaiser Blvd, Suite 300 Anaheim, CA 92808
Toll Free: (866) 518-1571
Monday - Friday, 7:00 am - 6:00 pm (Pacific)
Saturday & Sunday, 7:00 am - 4:00 pm (Pacific)
Email:
Support@AdvancedAccess.com
Website:
www.AdvancedAccess.com
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