Ever since the “Page Rank is Dead” post hit Broker/Agent Social, we have received several emails and phone 
calls from worried Dakno Real Estate Marketing clients wondering if “the Google Sky was falling”. Before anyone panics, here are a few quick thoughts. Yes, the article in general is accurate (headline is borderline sensationalistic). Please don’t think for a minute that Google is going to suddenly flip a switch and all of this is going to come online at once.
Business as Usual!
It could be construed that the author of this post is misleading his readers when he says that Google is getting ready to push an update (although I do commend him for pointing out the frequency of updates). Google has been doing these items for quite some time. Nothing here is really new.
- Universal search has been around for a while (showing video, news and blogs in the search results).
- They already track bounce rates (mouse over a search result link in Google and look at your status bar. Notice that they don’t directly link to the site but rather a page that they can track in case you hit the back button!)
- IP address based searches are already in place. The next time you talk to a friend across the country, try both doing a search for the same term. Chances are you will get two different result sets. That’s because of two things… 1) Google’s data centers have different algorithms (they continually test) and 2) IP based results.
- Google announced almost 2 years ago that they do “intent based†searches. Especially for people who are signed into your Google Account. Google actually “learns†based on your search habits and delivers results accordingly.
- The article title is a buzz generator (and judging from the amount of people emailing me, it seems that the title worked!). PageRank is NOT dead. But let’s hope that everyone’s competition actually believes this and stops building backlinks! Those who implement sound backlink strategies would skyrocket to the top.
Same Old Debate – SEO is Dead!
The whole “SEO is dead†debate comes up all the time in SEO forums, chat rooms and blogs. I think that’s just as logical as saying the Music Industry is dead because of MP3s. No, the SEO industry simply evolves. Today more than ever we focus on the entire aspect of online marketing, we evolve. Three years ago it was all about stuffing tons of keywords and trading links. Now we talk about Social Networks, YouTube and viral marketing. Just like the Real Estate and Music Industry, we evolve. It just helps separate the people who still cling to the old and people who embrace change.
Sergey and Larry Just Woke Up!
The good news about Google is that they never make any drastic changes. Everything is slow. Much of the
reason is PR (Public Relations not PageRank). Think about it for second. So many companies depend on high rankings for their income. Imagine if Google rolled out sweeping changes that totally changed search results. Not only would site visitors get extremely frustrated because they could never find (nor rely on) the same thing twice, but companies would be outraged that they lost their placement because “Sergey and Larry” woke up one morning and decided to dump any site that didn’t contain video.
Yes – Video is Your Friend
So in summary, yes, it’s smart to incorporate video into your site (just look at this search result – although admittedly it’s a easy keyword) but it does give you an example. Embrace all the new ideas, just don’t think that Google has a clock counting down to launch a “game changerâ€! If they ever do, they would go to great lengths to let everyone know (and we would be sure to let all of our Dakno clients know too).
All the best in 2009,
Brad
Thank god!