Comments on: Having a nice weekend off? Google’s moving your Customers.

By: The MicroISV Digest

The MicroISV Digest — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:52:42 +0000

[...] is changing. I’ll be posting again on this soon, but Danny Sullivan is the Man when it comes to search, so you might want to read: [...]

By: SEO Microsites Strategy | Breaking Google's Glass Ceiling with a Microsite | Avangate Blog - Software Sales Tips | Software Business Blog

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:21:02 +0000

[...] Put some effort into it, and update it regularly. People can tell whether you just threw together something or you’ve taken the time to do it right. Do it right – or outsource the basic research to someone competent and then add your experience in. Also, put in place a procedure/layout so you can update your microsite easily on an ongoing basis. For example, a well-thought out submission form works well. You want to do this for two very good reasons: people are going to start sending you feedback/resources to include and you will find it far easier to deal with these prospective customers well by having a process in place. Second, Google is changing how people will use it in 2010 to find your software: recent updates will matter much more. (see this post for details.) [...]

By: Changes at Google - dreaming design

Changes at Google - dreaming design — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:51:09 +0000

[...] few interesting changes with google’s search options over the past weekend. Read more here: New Google Options – 47 Hats blog This will potentially change what you find on searches… and more importantly, it changes what [...]

By: Bob Walsh

Bob Walsh — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:06:21 +0000

Stray__Cat: Ignoring Google is like trying to ignore gravity. Nice in theory, hard in practice. Also note Google’s options are in response to where Bing is going….

By: Stray__Cat

Stray__Cat — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:01:29 +0000

I did not nearly started to do SEO on my site and bang! all the rules change. It may not be an enormous change as Bob foresees, but it’s not negligible.
I’m wondering if it’s better shelving Google for a while and targeting only Yahoo and Bing for the moment.

By: Ubercoder

Ubercoder — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:33:03 +0000

Personally, the most dangerous feature is the filtering “Visited Pages”.

The good thing is that is not the default options.

By: Bob Walsh

Bob Walsh — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:08:07 +0000

Michael,

Hey, remember, these are the people who are supposed to be insightful, canny and sophisticated enough to appreciate what a great value your software is!

Seriously, no one, and I mean no one like every human being on the face of the planet no one, wants “old” software. If one click gets them “Recent” software, that has huge implications for some software vendors – perhaps you. Add to that the 1 click that turns on “ugly” vs. “pretty” and it’s something you’re going to have to address, unless Google decides these search features are too hard for their users – And that opinion would be diametrically opposite of their entire corporate ethos.

Bottom line: which works for you: act on and gain sales or react to after losing sales?

By: Jason Cohen

Jason Cohen — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:56:34 +0000

This should favor blogs — they change frequently (or are supposed to…).

There’s nothing on-site you can do about “not yet visited” of course…

Great post, thanks for the heads-up.

By: Michael Scepaniak

Michael Scepaniak — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:41:45 +0000

Thank you for the notice, Bob – and I appreciate your take, but… I don’t know. I don’t think typical Google users will ever click the “Show options…” link. And, if they do, their eyes will glaze over when they see that big list of options. It depends on the behavior of your target customers. Personally, I don’t see the wisdom in being too reactionary about it. But, awareness is definitely good.

Mike…..

By: Bob Walsh

Bob Walsh — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:50:06 +0000

Yes and no – Since March Google has been field testing various search options; since May the Wonder Wheel. It’s when everyone gets the full set of search options + Page Preview + Already Visited that how people use Google to find software changes. That’s starting to happen this weekend, and various Google watchers have speculated that the new Search Options + the new ranking algorithm Caffeine will be rolled out early next year.

For startups and microISVs, what happens when your customers routinely search for new software (“recent”, “not visited”) with Page Preview on? You can wait as this becomes the norm – leaking customers all the way – or you can get at the front of the curve.

By: Matt Brubeck

Matt Brubeck — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:16:50 +0000

The “Search Options” panel is not new this weekend. The “More options” link was added back in May 2009, widely reported at the time, and announced by Google here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-search-options-and-other-updates.html

(The change that Gizmodo is reporting does enable portions of it by default, while previously it was visible only after clicking the “More options” link.)