Everyone else in the world (least all the clicks I did on google’s myriad of sites) got the FIFA icon up top….as the World Cup launched their series of games today in SA….

‘Cept us canucks. We got a Jacques Cousteau icon….of a nice looking reef scuba diver and some fish and some kelp and stuff….all very nice indeed!

So, here’s the story from the AFP wire – 

Google honors Jacques Cousteau

(AFP) – 3 hours ago  WASHINGTON — Google paid tribute on Friday to Jacques Cousteau on what would have been the French undersea explorer’s 100th birthday. The Internet giant replaced its colorful search page Google logo with a drawing of a scuba diver. Placing the cursor over the drawing reveals the phrase “Happy 100th Birthday Jacques Cousteau!”  Cousteau, who died in 1997, would have been 100 years old on Friday. Cousteau was well known in the United States for his TV programs and his ship called Calypso used for diving and filming the underwater marine habitat.  

  Hrmph! Okay….so, like when will we get a hockey icon? Now THAT’D be a swell one, eh?

Not google.com, mind you…for that screen I continue to get the same pure white background….but as you can see, you’re now allowed to use a photo to background your google home search page, a la BING, eh!

Not bad, google lads…now all I gotta do is find some pix to use….down in the bottom left hand corner btw, is the text button to change same, fyi!

If you ‘see’ sumthin different, would love you to post same too….as a sort of a google.ca survey type thingy….

So….a #1 ranking brings new traffic, that’s not  news, but the size of the lead of the #1 spot over all the rest is somewhat surprising, eh!

“Obviously, everyone knows that the #1 spot on Google is where you want to be,” says Chitika research director Daniel Ruby.  “It’s just kind of shocking to look at the numbers and see just how important it is, and how much of a jump there is from 2 to 1.”

The biggest jump, percentage-wise, is from the top of page 2 to the bottom of page 1.  Going from the 11^th spot to 10^th sees a 143% jump in traffic.  However, the base number is very low – that 143% jump is from 1.11% of all Google traffic to 2.71%.  As you go up the top page, the raw jumps get bigger and bigger, culminating in that desired top position…”

Now that’s impressive!

As you can see by the graph below, the clicks that come from the second, third, fourth and all the way down to the tenth ranking positions drop off so quickly that they’re almost like an after thought…it’s #1 or die trying in the survey sampling numbers!

So, we’re back to work, eh! Gotta get more clients up and into that #1 spot…and that’s not easy in many highly competitive channels, eh! But hard work, perserverence and yes sometimes even some luck can get the job done, eh! Tune in later this week, when we’ll show up some further numbers on search and personality-checks too!

It’s a fully working Pac-Man game that you can run right from the google.ca 0r google.com (aint had the time to spend to look globally as I’m too into the game, eh!) and it’s true nostalgia!

What a hoot! Thanks Sergi and Larry….muchly appreciated AND it made my long weekend up here in Canada too!

As you can see from the top logo, the colorations have changed — Google has both brightened the hues of the various primary shades used as well as decreasing the 3D bevelled look and lightened the drop-shadow too.

But not for us canucks, eh!

Many others have already commented on the changes that run much deeper than the mere changing of the Google logo, and I’ve outlined some of them here below….which are especially important for us canucks, eh!

First here’s a screenshot of the Google.com layouts after a search for “plumbers in hamilton ontario” was done…

As you can see, there is a whole new icon bar down the contextually relevant left hand sidebar filters, that offers up the various Google items to finetune that search according to various filters etc.

This does actually look pretty nice and I’d like to think that it “adds” something to the whole Google search landscape, but for the most part, I think that its only a “nice to have” item…

That said, yes, you can surely still see the up-top Adwords sponsored links in that yellow backgrounded area, followed yes, as usual now, by the Google LOCAL 7-pack….none I note who are also included below in the normal Google search serps. That is, yes, these 7 are LOCAL plumbers etc, but not a single one has worked at SEO to gain any standings in the normal google search rankings. Hello, Hamilton plumbers….are you listening here lads? Seems like there’s a “hole” in your marketing plans, eh!

Okay, here’s that exact same search for  “plumbers in hamilton ontario” but this time done in our google.ca search engine…and what do you see here that’s different, eh?

So, the major differences are noticeable, and lets look at same, okay? First, no icons lead the way to each of those contextually relevant left-hand side filters for that search. There are plain jane text links used only. The filters still do “work” though, but we dont’ get that flashy new interface.

The top still holds the 3 sponsored Adwords links up top in that yellow backgrounded area, but we were interested to notice that the top Adwords link goes to a totally different sponsor for our google.ca search page results AND that link also includes in a drop-down link that shows a Map to that plumbers location too! Nice! Shows that if you pay for a link, folks can find you pretty easily, which is a nice touch!

However, like on the google.com page — each and everyone of those 7-pack listings is NOT included below in the normal google.ca search results….once again pointing out to us that Hamilton plumbers need to get some SEO campaigns happening, eh!

And of course, there’s a lot more to see and learn about how Google has changed their UI for the .com world (but not for us .ca users as yet, eh!) and heres a few links for same….

• Google themselves offers up (with a great video too) their ‘corporate’ explanation for same here….
• Greg Stirling, a very well known blogger offers up his comments here…
• Danny Sullivan the guru on Search over at SEL, offers up a fine take on same here…

So, the question is then, Google…when’re we getting that same new UI, eh?

Us canucks wanna know!

UPDATE : As of today, Monday June 7th, 2010 — the google.ca page now mimics the google.com page…i.e. we canucks now see the “same” layouts and icon based content as the rest of the continent. Nice one, Google…took a month eh…but here’s a screenshot of same…identical to the google.com one!

The official Google search blog noted the following changes to their major algo and responses in this way — and this is important, so sit up and listen!

“Refinements for local searches: Whether you’re looking for info close to home or while you’re traveling, it’s now easier to find things to do in the cities you’re searching for on Google. Now when you search for a city name, we’ll show you popular query refinements for places in those cities. We’ve found that people like to explore several places during a trip, so when we show one point of interest, we’ll also show you related points of interest. For instance, if you’re looking for food or a place to stay, you’ll also see some of the top category and neighborhood refinements to help you choose a place. This new feature will be rolling out over the next couple days for 200 U.S. cities, and in the coming weeks we’ll expand coverage to more cities internationally…”

Note a couple of things here and this is what we’ve been preaching here on canuckseo.com for months now — that LOCAL search is coming into it’s own! When you do a search for a city, Google will now add small, text links below the #1 item shown that they call “refinements” that will list points of interest.

Think about that for a second – and here’s an image to look over to see what I mean, one that comes up today when you simply search for say, Boston!

I’ve outlined in that red ellipse, what Google has added (for selected cities so far only) to the mix, ie a listing of related points of interest. Really, this is sort of a “no-brainer” in that anyone searching for Boston and a hotel  or Faneuil Hall would almost every time modify the search term to include same, but there they are anyways.

And those links? What happens when you click say on the Hotels link?

Yup, you get  the Google 7-Pak, LOCAL search display as seen here below…

Note please that this 7-Pak has been covered already in previous articles here and all across the web in other SEO practitioners blogs as the lastest incarnation for the Google LOCAL business listing results for geo-targeted search queries.

So what does this mean for us canuckseo types and how may this affect your own business listings?

Well, as Google has announced that this “refinement” has only been rolled out for 200 US cities, so far after much testing, not a one of any of our provincial capitals nor major cities has such a refinement as yet. But we know that they’re coming to Canada, and that will mean that those sites who already have a LOCAL business results presence, via Canadian citiations, reviews and listings will fare much better than those who don’t, eh!

Think about that if you own a Canadian business and want to get more traffic! A fairly easy-to-accomplish method to gain that traffic via a new link in Google! Now that can work, eh!

Yup, Google has announced, that they are now finalizing an OPT OUT tracking tool for anyone who chooses to use same that will allow that user to NOT be included in any site traffic serps.

The official word from Google is available here… and the release on same is yes, short and to the point, but is it?

Many many of us, perhaps millions as I understand the usage of Google Analytics, use this free website traffic aggregator, to measure our client’s traffic on a daily basis. We enjoy the great looking charts and note always on changes to percentages, to real time numbers and gather same up to show a client that yes, we’re doing a job for them in getting their website traffic. Oh, sure..there’s the whole matter of conversions and ROI on the SEO Campaign itself to factor in…but as a free tool, Google Analytics works wonders and has been the #1 IMHO website traffic measurement tool in use online today.

Except, for some of us — and I really don’t know how many of us there are — we somehow felt “odd” using both Google to gain serp success via our SEO Campaigns  and Google Analytics to measure same. I know that I did..which is why for our own clients — ALL our clients, we use Urchin which is reputed to be still one of the best website traffic measurement tools out there.

Yes, I do know that it was purchased by Google a few years back which proved to me then (as it does now) that this app has value, and yes, it’s still available for a fee and supports just about every single type and kind of online measurement available. We love Urchin, and our clients do too…so this whole “change” to Google-World is not that big a deal to us…as we’ve asked about Urchin’s inclusion in this OPT OUT new paradigm from Google and have been assured that it is outside of that change. If you use Urchin for your own or your client’s traffic, you will NOT be affected by this change.

But I do wonder about those SEO practitioners who’ve become so “cosy” with Google Analytics…and how this might change their own thinking and reporting on traffic….if someone can opt out of that traffic, then are those numbers even worth reporting? Seems like a no to me, eh…but we’ll see I think in the coming months…

Well, the interesting part of all of the competing nations and their striving to win gold medals is the search patterns layed down by global or nationalistic searchers….and that shows peaks that are very interesting, eh!

Ably reported just yesterday by Google themselves on their Official Google Blog in this manner –

“During the past two weeks, athletes from around the world competed at the Games in Vancouver. While these thousands strove for gold, millions around the world searched for “2010 Winter Olympics, 밴쿠버 동계올림픽 (Korean for “Vancouver Winter Olympics”), and Juegos Olimpicos de Invierno 2010 (Spanish for “2010 Olympic Winter Games”) using Google search. Now that the medals have been handed out, we thought we’d take a moment to share how some people from around the world searched for information about the Games.”

The full piece goes on to show how various nations citizens searched for items related to the 2010 Olympics and covered Norway, Japan, Korea, the U.S. and yes, Canada too!

“Canada:
Canada was not only the host — it also won the most gold medals of any region during any such games. Like the U.S., interest began with the opening ceremonies, and was dominated by men’s hockey queries, causing a huge spike during the gold-medal game on February 28 as well as smaller spikes for games against USA (February 21) and Russia (February 24). The final women’s hockey game against the U.S. on February 25 also caused a small bump in searches.”

As you can see, over the period from Feb 12th to Feb 28th, we peaked during what can be seen as the “important” event dates for what Canucks seemed to be interested in knowing more about….the Opening Ceremonies, Can/US hockey game day, Can/Russia hockey game day and yes the all important final day Gold Medal hockey game too…won I’d very much like to add by Canada!

 As well, it also appears when taken from this article on the Google Blog, that we canucks were much twice as much more likely to search for “Vancouver 2010″ or “medal count” on Google, which ain’t bad for a country of 34 million, eh!

So, GO Canada….and yes, IMHO, we DID own the Podium, eh!

Go to Google.ca, and say search for a “Hamilton plumbers” or “Hamilton plumbing firms” and what do you see? Yes, a web search results page that includes the Google Local search map with a 7-pack showing business names and addresses, URLs etc for those chosen by Google to be shown. Fine. I like that. We’ve got lots of clients who come up in these web results pages for services and products throughout the region and this is how it should be. This is a good thing, and we continue to do well for our clients knowing that Google offers up these listings for one and all….or do they? Here’s a shot of that google.ca search results screen….

As you can see, the local plumbers are all listed properly and the intent of the search was of course, to find a local plumber…i.e. this is how a local search should work, right?

However, all things are not as they appear, it appears. Now go back to google.ca and plug in “Hamilton SEO” or “Hamilton SEO firms” and what do you see? What Google shows for that query is the normal search results page WITHOUT any LOCAL firms being shown under the LOCAL search maps/business listings! Google has NOT made that search the “same” as the search for almost every other type of service/product. Why is that, you and we wonder?

Well, according to a Google spokesperson named Joel H this is the Google position – 

“Today, we’re intentionally showing less local results for web design / SEO queries. For example, [web design sacramento] doesn’t display local listings today. We believe this is an accurate representation of user intent. In some cases, we do show local listings, however –  [web design in bellingham]. I’m sure some of you feel we should be displaying local results for queries like [Web Design Vancouver]. I understand that concern, but based on our understanding of our users, we feel this is the right decision for now.

“I’ll give the usual disclaimer that we’re constantly working on improving the user experience and results will vary over time. So, this could change in the future, but I wanted to be explicit about what we’re doing today.”

What that means is that Google will be ‘blocking’ certain search query terms for LOCAL business city listing searches BUT they might include that missing LOCAL search results business listing, should the searcher include in the word “in.”

So back to our google.ca search, and here once again we used the “Hamilton SEO” query….and here’s what you see –

Note that the search results page DOES NOT show the LOCAL listings, eh? Okay, now let’s add back that “in” qualifier and run the same search query…and here’s the resulting search page….

Google has now included in the LOCAL maps with the local business listings….the “in” qualifier works for this type of business listing…but so what, you ask?

Think about that for a minute…why would Google differentiate between a Hamilton plumber and a Hamilton SEO company? And not just  we firms in the SEO business have been affected by this differentiation either…it appears that local ad agencys are affected, graphic design firms, logo design firms, web design firms and web developers too….all IMHO companies who work on the web….it appears have been affected by this Google edict.

And our question, like hundreds of other firms in our channel, is why?

I read them on forums all across the web, on blogs as comments, on more forums that support these same outmoded and surely “past their best-before date” opinions, that this is the ‘good stuff’ to get your site up onto page #1.

And they’re wrong!

With more than 9 years now of SEO practice, with over 30 clients and yes, we STILL have all of them (i.e. we’ve never lost a client ever!) we know SEO! We practice it every single day. We work at it and we’ve learned that honest, hard, long hours spent building content and backlinks are the ONLY way to SEO client success! We have patience. We have knowledge and we provide both to our clients — way past what we see online as newbie after newbie comes onto the SEO stage to ask if the tactic that they just read about “works?” And of course, it’s an outdated outmodded one…and no, it won’t work…sigh.

Why more folks just wont’ realize that hard work “works” is beyond me….everyone it appears is looking for a quick, easy way to get rich via a page #1 ranking on Google…and I’m about fed up with that!

So, this EBook covers the very basics of the top 8 tips to get your site UP and onto page #1 in Google, by disposing of those outdated outmodded tips that still circulate all over the web. It spells out in simple language with the facts outlined based on our over 9 years of experience, as to what you should NOT do, and what you SHOULD do, to rank. Period.

What is the EBook’s Table of Contents?

• Introduction
• Brief History of Search Engines and their Algos!
• TIP # 1 – Will Auto Site Submissions Improve my Rankings?
• TIP # 2 – Do Paid Site Submissions Improve my Rankings? 
• TIP # 3 – Will Optimizing my Site will Improve my Rankings?
• TIP # 4 – Can Doorway Pages will Improve my Rankings?
• TIP # 5 – Do Link Wheels will help my Rankings?
• TIP # 6 – Do Auto Directory listings Improve my Rankings?
• TIP # 7 – Can Paid Directory listings Improve my Rankings?
• TIP # 8 – Surely META keywords will Improve my Rankings?
• Summary for 2010!

If you follow this guide you will take your place on page #1 at Google…and remember, to read everything ELSE you can find on SEO…and then hypothesize, test, analyze and learn how to rank!

Yes, there is a cost for this, but it’s pretty nominal, as you’ll note, it’s only $11.99 US via Paypal. Click on our Order button below to pay and it’ll be emailed to your email address right away.

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