What do you predict will be the big changes to search in the next few years?

Matt Cutts, Google software engineer, answers questions from users.

Sean Weigold Ferguson from Orlando, Florida asks:

"What do predict will be the big changes to "search" as we know it today over the next 3 years? What are some of today's trends that you believe will believe will shape the future of Google search?"

Search engine optimization

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A typical search engine results page

Internet marketing

Display advertising E-mail marketing E-mail marketing software Interactive advertising Social media optimization Web analytics Cost per impression

Affiliate marketing

Cost per action Contextual advertising Revenue sharing

Search engine marketing

Search engine optimization Pay per click advertising Paid inclusion Search analytics

Mobile advertising

This box: view • talk • edit

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.
The acronym "SEO" can refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.
Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, use methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.

How can I remove old content from Google's index?

Matt Cutts, Google software engineer, answers questions from users.

Sebastian from Germany asks:

"We still have old content in the index. We block them via robots.txt, use 404 and delete them via Webmaster Tools, but Google keeps it. What can we do to quickly delete content from the index?"

Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues

Presented by Greg Grothaus of Google.
Greg joined Google in July 2005 as a Search Quality Engineer, where he is responsible for maintaining the quality of the search results in Google’s main search index. Prior to Google, he studied Bioinformatics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He earned both his B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech.

Are different types of sites treated differently in Google?

Matt Cutts, Google software engineer, answers questions from users.

Paul Anthony from Belfast, Northern Ireland asks:

"Are different sites treated differently? e.g. are blogs treated differently than e-commerce sites? Does Google attempt to figure out the context of a site or are all websites equal?"

Keyword Density

Keyword density is always a hot topic. A search for “keyword density tool” brings up nearly 50.000 results in Google.
Even top SEO programs, such as IBP and Web CEO have keyword density tools.

The article linked below by Linda Jenkinson shows you how to optimize a page without using keyword density tools.

http://web-content-designer.com/blog/writng-web-content/keyword-density/ 

The mistake many webmasters and keyword density tools make with keyword phrases is that you needn’t keep words in keyword phrases adjacent to each other. The sentence “White bread makes good toast” will fair just as well in search engine results as the phrase “white toast”. Creative use of keyword phrases makes your content both more informative and a more enjoyable read for your visitors.

Linda Jenkinson, founder of Web Content Design, specializes in freelance writing and editing Search Engine Optimized web content for Internet businesses.

Are links in footers treated differently than paragraph links?

This video is part of a "Grab Bag" series in which Matt Cutts, head of Google's webspam team, answers questions from users.

Andres from Boston, MA asks:

"Does Google treat links in footers differently than links surrounded by text (e.g. in a paragraph)?"

Is Google doing away with use of the meta description?

Matt Cutts, head of Google's webspam team, answers questions from users.

Quentin from Vancouver asks:

"In the search results, Google will often display a snippet appropriate to the specific search query - often disregarding the meta description. Is Google doing away with meta description use like they did with meta keywords?"

Search Engine Optimization SEO Tutorial

Search Engine Optimization SEO Tutorial by WebBizIdeas is meant for beginners.

In this video they cover SEO techniques that will increase your search engine rankings.
We will go over the definition of search engine optimization, organic results, PPC, keyword research, competition research, competition analysis, on page & off page optimization, Meta tags, header tags, keyword density, URLs, site maps, xml site maps, google webmaster tools, link development, directory submission, local directories, online yellow pages, one-way links, two-way links, three-way links, article submission, rss feed distribution, blog submission, and online press release optimization.

How can I optimize my site on a small budget?

Matt Cutts, head of Google's webspam team, answers questions from users.


Keen Agents from Glendale, CA asks:

"How does someone begin to SEO their site on a small budget in an overwhelmed industry such as real estate?"

Whitehat linkbait

Google software engineer Matt Cutts shares an example of whitehat linkbait.

How do meta geo tags influence the search results?

Matt Cutts, head of Google's webspam team, answers questions from users.

Jochen from Stuttgart, Germany asks:

"How do meta geo tags influence the search results?"

Will SEO still exist in five years?

On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.

Kevin from Marseille, France asked:

Will SEO still exist in 5 years?