Of the four new product announcements made at Google Press Day, Google Co-op looks to have the greatest potential impact. This service allows users to subscribe to the "bookmarks" of experts in hopes that the relevance of search results will be improved.
The product manager for Google Co-op, Shashi Seth, described Google Co-op as follows: "Anyone can contribute. We expect it to work in a three-part process. At the first stage, the contributor will ask users to subscribe with specific pieces, relying on user trust and desire to utilize their content. At the initial stage contributors will 'sell' the Co-op product on their own sites and bring their own audience. Then we will tally how often they are used and the level of interaction and whether to build a signal. As confidence increases, the contributor has a better chance of getting into the Google Co-op directory. Once they are in the directory, it will make it easier for others to subscribe. And finally, with more quality proven, the information may affect Google Search itself."
Basically, Google Co-op allows web masters to improve search results in the topics they know best. Google Co-op creates a meta search engine, combining other specialized search engines that are created by its' users.
What Does this Mean for Us?
These developments have very exciting implications for web masters. The chance to influence Google rankings is always an exciting thought.
Google is entering into the world of communities by letting users contribute their knowledge and expertise to improve search results for everyone. This was confirmed by Shashi Seth, the lead product manager for Google Co-op who recently stated that Google Co-op is the search engine's push into community-based searches.
This service certainly seems similar to the many social bookmarking sites that have exploded on the internet in the past couple of years. Furl, Digg, del.icio.us, Scuttle, Yahoo! MyWeb 2.0, and others all offer ways for users to share information. Google entering into this giant arena may very well spark some additional growth of Web 2.0.
For the web developer and search engine optimizer, these developments are very enticing. Here's how you can take part.
How to Get Started
To build a topic, you must first decide on a set of labels and their presentation in the user interface. After that, you must annotate web pages to improve the search experience for yourself and for your subscribers. Depending on your topic you may want to label hundreds or even thousands of web sites or web pages.
To begin, simply go to Google.com/coop. Sign in and create a profile and a label. If you want to create a page about dog training, you might label it "dog training." Then, you could put all sorts of information in that page. Others can contribute to that page or subscribe. The more subscribers you get, the more relevant your page becomes.
For a complete tutorial on creating a topic, go to http://www.google.com/coop/docs/guide_topics.html.
Once you get started, you will be given a profile page. This is where users can learn about you and get more information about your contributions. Users can then decide whether or not they want to subscribe to your topic. Your profile page also includes:
Your recent contributions
what kind of labels you've added
Your subscribers and…
Links to your own web sites or blogs
You can allow people to subscribe to your topics by sending them to your public profile, enabling them to add your work to their search results.
However, the power of Google Co-op goes even further. To get the most benefit out of these new developments, you'll want to chëck out subscribed links.
Subscribed Links
Subscribed Links allow you to gain frëe promotion for your website by enabling you to add your services directly into Google search. This makes your links much more prominent for people who are subscribed to your content.
Google provides a number of special features, including currency conversion, movie showtimes, and stöck quotes. You can create your very own services as well by building subscribed links.
Other web sites have already begun offering these customized services.
OpenTable created a subscribe link that delivers real-time information about restaurant availability whenever they perform a restaurant search on Google. These specialized links lead to a web page that allows you to make reservations on OpenTable's website.
People Magazine built a subscribe link that gives users relevant celebrity info based on the queries they type into Google. When users subscribe to their content, they receive priority links at the top of Google search results that lead to more detailed celebrity info on the People Magazine site.
You can create similar applications and allow your users to add your subscriptions to their default Google search page. These results appear in the Google one box, a special text area with a light green background. So, if someone subscribes to your links, they will instantly see your website at the top of the results whenever they search for topics related to your expertise.
For a complete guide on creating subscribed links, go to http://www.google.com/coop/docs/guide_subscribed_links.html.
For webmasters, this is a very exciting development. Expect to see some "Subscribe to our Links!" buttons appearing on web sites very soon.
Ready to Get Started
Google Co-op is nöw in it's infancy stage, the perfect opportunïty for you to gain some ground early in the game. The Google Co-op directory is currently very small, with only a handful of topics being covered. By getting started nöw, you can gain an advantage on those who enter in later, much like those who have established their rankings early on within the Google search engine.
Submitted by Kim Roach
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For the uninitiated, Google ranks all pages on the web with a scale of PR0 to PR10 - higher is better. High PR sites or pages receive most of the traffïc for competitive keywords or phrases. Keywords are what surfers type into search engines to find what they're looking for on the web.
Ranking high in Google for popular keywords can prove very lucrative. It can make the difference whether your website is in the black and producing hourly profits, or a total worthless waste of pixel space. Having a high Google PR is equivalent to having monëy in the bank, it is that important.
Google is still the undisputed king of traffïc and, regardless of what's on the horizon, Google is the major deliverer of the web's traffïc. That's why losing your high Google PR ranking, sometimes overnight, can be so devastating for the struggling webmaster or marketer.
Read this article to discover how you as a webmaster can protect yourself from lost profits and traffïc, even if Google pulls the plug on your site or PR, while putting another one of their endless algorithms into place.
10 Ways to Outsmart Google's PageRank System
Here's a list of things you can do to lessen the impact of a sudden drop of the almighty Google PageRank:
• Diversify your traffïc - make sure you cultivate other sources of traffïc other than the search engines. Förm partnerships and strategic links with other webmasters. Interact in forums and online communities.
• Provide quality information and frëe products or services that get 'good word of mouth' recommendations from your visitors. Content will always be king - make sure it reigns supreme on your site.
• Pick the right domain name. If you can, choose a short catchy keyword for your domain, one people will remember and would naturally type into a search engine or browser to find what they're looking for on the web. For example: www.hotels.com.
If you're having success with your site, (or/and especially if you're not) venture into off-line advertising and promotion. Use traditional promotional products, t-shirts, caps, bumper stickers, etc. to promote your URL. You can also try PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising to provide you with targeted traffïc and sidestep the search engines. Well sort of!
• Try viral products like ebooks, reports and frëe software programs to get your links out into the marketplace. You can also try product or site testimonials which are another great source of targeted traffïc.
• Be extremely careful of any out-going links from your site. Don't link to bad neighborhoods (link farms, banned sites, etc.) Google will penalize you for bad links so always chëck the PageRank of the sites you're linking to from your site. If you don't have the Google Bar - you can chëck any site's PageRank at: www.iwebtool.com.
• Onsite SEO factors do have an influence on rankings - make sure your site is dressed to kill. Pay attention to keyword density, title descriptions, meta tags, alt tags and interior linking structure. If you can, optimize your site for all three major search engines: MSN, Yahoo and Google. But don't stop there, also submit your site to the countless other smaller search engines on the web. It's the old adage, don't put all your eggs into the ever-changing Google basket or you'll probably turn your site and yourself into one desperate basket case.
• Along those same lines, have a large spread of keyword phrases that you're targeting with the content on your site. Don't go after extremely competitive keywords which have countless major players with deep pockets buying links, left right and center. Instead, pick a whole range of keyword phrases that have less or little competition. All these keyword phrases will add up to a flood of traffïc for your site. Phrases that for the most part won't be affected by a sudden drop in PageRank. One good site for finding these keywords is www.nichebot.com - it will give both the number of hits and the amount of competition for each keyword.
• There is one more strategy you must explore if you want to lessen the power and importance of your own site's PR. One strategy that will bring in tons of Google traffïc even if your PR is ZERO. You must utilize the PageRank of other sites on the web. Use off-page optimization for your major keywords. Build countless anchor text links through keyword rich articles, content related blogs and products that benefit from the high PR of other sites on the web.
• Keyword rich articles are some of the best examples of this method, placing them on high PR sites will filter Google traffïc through these articles onto your site. It will also warm up these visitors before they reach your site and they will be more receptive to any of your site's offerings - nevër underestimate the power of the Pre-sell. Build enough of these links and a sudden drop in your own Google PR ranking won't drastically affect your bottom line or the amount of quality traffïc you are receiving.
What's even more satisfying, if you build these links, partnerships, and off-site optimization - your Google PageRank will probably go up. If it doesn't, who cares, for you will have Google-Proofed your site against any sudden drop in your site's PR rankings and broadened the reach of your site by using the high PR of other sites on the Web. In the process, you will have protected your site and yourself from the big bad Google PR wolf.
You don't have to conquer Google, you just have to outsmart it!
Submitted by Titus Hoskins
