The answer is quite simple, it’s got to be millions of times a day. Hasn’t it?

There was a time when Google would visit even the biggest sites once a week, once a month or only 6 times a year. Now Google visits certain sites such as www.bbc.co.uk, www.sky.com and www.guardian.co.uk every 15 mins.

Test Google Crawl speed

Try it now. Take a very recent headline from the Guardian news page, then search for it. If it doesn’t appear, wait five minutes, then search again. Bingo – it’ll be in the top 5 searches (depending on how many words you used).

Now copy a handful of words from the article and paste them into google search. Again the result will be the new page.

Millions of Keywords and amendments

Think about how many keywords have therefore changed in the last five minutes and how this has therefore effected 1000s of SERPS results with ten of thousands of derivatives of keywords and permutations on the results. (Read the first blog post and I will be back to tell you how quickly the article was crawled.)

SERPS are therefore changing all the time. As one result goes to the top of the Google SERPS, others are slipping down. And as the new article gets less credit or another usurps it, then that too will slip down, thus changing the SERPS again.

This IP-SEO URL tracker tool shows just that.

Buy toys online

This is a chart for “Buy Toys Online” on google, over the Christmas period and beyond – a big search at a busy time. The SERPS are changing every day throughout the top 100 results.

This Chart (one of our SEO tools) also only takes a snap-shot of a daily search, not one done every 15 mins or half an hour.

To find out more give us a bell or drop a line below with your comments.

The fact remains that a good multi-media experience on the web is quite often the integration of flash, video, javascript, html…the list grows.

Google’s inability to provide a solution for users wanting good results for flash and html integrated pages portrayed SEO practice as one that sacrificed the interactive experience that Action Script enables in favour of Googles preferrence for HTML.

Google will read Flash – we’re told

12 months ago it was all over the blogs that Google had built a new and dedicated robot that was going to search through flash content in the same way a user would, and then fairly integrate the pages into the SERPS mix. We waited and for a long while after we saw nothing in the results that Google threw up.

Proof that Google does Read Flash

6 months ago Google got into Flash. We noticed this with a client of ours, Voicenet Solutions, a Hosted IP Telephony provider. They deliver business phone services enabled by Cisco IP phones.

2 years ago a range of interactive user guides on various Cisco IP Phones were created in flash, these were designed to help users navigate the phones functionality through an online interface.

Up until 6 months ago these pages never appeared in the top 100 results for any of the related terms in the content. 6 months ago this changed.

Searchers looking for user guides for Cisco phones were finding themselves at Voicenet Solutions flash webpages. Google had demonstrated its ability to look through embedded flash text and reference the keyword text in the SERPs.

The Impact of Flash reading on Traffic

The impact of this change alone has seen Voicenet Solutions organic search traffic over the last 6 months increase by 300%. The result of this will also have had consequence for the category as the accessibility of this content makes the categories instantly more competitive.

From a design perspective there are still challenges. Google might server the correct flash file to search users in the correct html page but it will always load the file at the start leaving the user to navigate through the content to arrive at the relevant term.

One thing is certain, this example demonstrates Google’s desire to get better and better at indexing the web and deliver the most relevant user search experience as possible. On that thought, I can’t help but to think that Google’s competitors missed a trick on this one.

Top - Flash page is read by Google. Bottom left the results in the Serps. Right - the multiple search terms in analytics

SEO Copywritng Tips

Fact: Quality SEO Copy will increase traffic
Fact: Quality copy will increase sales
Fact:Google reads words – not images, make every word count
Fact: SEO does not need to kill the headline
Fact: Good SEO copy needn’t be boring or spammy
Fact: Copy with an emphasis on the customer journey will help with the overall structure of your website
Fact: Quality SEO copy will ensure the user clicks on your SERPS result rather than a competitor’s
Fact: Updating content regularly in a news section or blog will mean Google visits your site more often.

SEO Copywriting

Your website is your shop window to the world, for humans, not robots.

Good, well-balanced SEO copy content is integral to the success of your search engine optimisation strategy. As well as ensuring that your SEO copywritng contains a good range of primary keywords and derivative keywords, all content should be geared towards increasing brand awareness and ultimately sell more products and services.

Clearly defined and interesting directional copy is therefore essential.

SEO Killed the Sub Editor

A well used phrase is that the SEO headline has killed the sub editor. Gone are the days of witty headlines now that we have to fill them up with keyword rich content. Untrue.

Look at some of these classic headlines – without which we wouldn’t have had “Paddy Pantsdown”, or that iconic image of Neil Kinnock, before the Sun Claimed “It’s the Sun wot Won it”

The Sun Famous Headlines

Super Caley

If the editor and all us other writers had to care too much about what is the ideal keyword to use, and whether we are writing the correct captions etc, then creative could die in writing. If it were true the headline below “Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious” when Caledonian Thistle beat the giants Celtic in February 2000…

…would have simply read “Caledonian Thistle 3, Celtic 1“*

SEO can be fun

But SEO is not the party pooper, the boring Robot feeding geek nor Mr Creative’s nemesis. Using our knowledge of how to use certain header tags and what Google and the other search engines look for, funny, clever and interesting headlines still have a very important place in all web copy. Just get the keywords in for goodness sake.

To find out more get in touch with me, Sam

*Thanks Jose

Image of London in Google maps

Google Maps was the starting point for Google’s navigation based platform, allowing users to user either a map or satellite view of the terrain to explore areas, find locations, and locate businesses and more. As time went on the Maps platform expanded, offering more dynamic views of the earth, with interactive views, 3d imaging and terrain exploration.

Google’s next step was to allow webmasters to integrate Google maps with their websites, allowing the plotting of coordinates and customization of the maps.

The current step has now brought Google to creating the Street View platform which offers an incredibly detailed 3d view of streets using high quality imaging. You can explore in any way you wish, choose what road to go down, what junctions to take, zoom in on shops, even take a look at the people that have been captured leaving pubs, shops and much more.

It’s amazing to think that Google have managed to create the idea and put it into existence considering the sheer volume of places throughout the USA and the UK. The amount of storage needed for this huge volume of images would near an exobyte in size.

So what kinds of views are on offer?

Take a look at some of the famous UK landmarks with Google Street View, below is Big Ben

Big Ben in Google Street view

Here is a snapshot taken from Google Street View, this is one of the most famous landmarks in the UK and is found in central London.

When you are done exploring Big Ben, why not take a trip to Regent Street, London

Regents Street in Google Street view

With such a large user base, and the biggest index of search results in the world, Google has the ability to promote hundreds of thousands of businesses via a number of different advertising methods, from providing tailored adsense results to recommended search results via your circumstances.
Google has a number of ways of collecting information, one of the most common ways of collecting information is through Google’s toolbar which not only records search data, but also reveals the websites you have visited when page rank is requested.

Google also collects cookies that are created by Google user sessions, either through a browser or tool. The cookie will usually track websites that have been visited, the type of websites visited, the navigation path or the keywords used. Typically any information collected by Google is not used to identify the user but instead to discover typical browsing habits affiliated with users searching for various keywords.
Google collects this information not only to provide more targeted results but also to generate targeted adsense results based upon the users query. Information is used in the generation of revenue by providing better results.

The clockwork system that Google works on not only generates revenue for Google and the businesses spending money, but also provides the most relevant results for the end user.
For example, if you are looking to buy a pair of shoes online, you may perform a search in Google which will lead to you visiting a website and making a purchase. Google through a number of ways may have learned that you search lead to a conversion, this information is stored in a cookie that Google will request. The business who had the conversion as a result may spend more on Google pay per click or may feature more Google advertisements through adsense.

The end result means that you have made a purchase because Google’s results were accurate, the company selling the shoes has made revenue through your order, and Google make money from the pay per click costs involved.

In the case of natural search, this information contributes towards Google’s PPC data for the adwords tools.

So what exactly is used to collect your information, and how does the data collection from Google work? Lets look at some of the ways in which Google collects your information.

All searches in Google are recorded, whenever you make a search in Google, the query is recorded and the information contributes towards the pay per click tools such as Google’s keyword tool or traffic estimator. The information also becomes attributed to various other tools including Google Sets and Google Trends.
The recording of this information is used in a variety of ways, typically it is to further enhance results but also to provide search trend information to those looking to spend money through Google’s other advertising avenues.

The barrier between the information being used to identify you is mainly in place as Google maintain that no statistics are used to personally identify you unless stated otherwise. So in general this could mean that the natural search queries are recorded but no data alongside that is used to identify you. However for a financial product, information may be collected to identify you.

When you visit a web page, Google adsense will typically return ads related to the search query made, this enhances the likelihood of the end user clicking on the adsense link. This information enhances adsense ads by recording users information and click behaviours between websites to fine tune the results returned for adsense.

When adsense information is observed a tracking cookie will record the movements made around the ad, this information is sometimes used towards PPC information for evaluating the value of a keyword. PPC Keywords range in click value, this value is derived from the conversion potential and competition levels.
Another instance of Google tracking information is through Google reader. When using this product, Google reader will report back on the common blogs you subscribe too and the sites visited through the reader. This information is used to further enhance the reader product. When developing recommended bookmarks, this is derived from the popularity of blog sites and other information websites accessed through the reader.

The next item of information usually collected/shared is when a person signs up for a financial service with Google, this is mostly pay per click related but can also be through Google Checkout, adsense and other financial services with Google have to collect financial information and personal information for identification and verification purposes. This information is typically stored under very secure circumstances, none of this information is shared with other parties.

Another piece of information that Google will collect hails from Google’s analytics platform. With analytics, Google will gain an insight into the websites that are controlled by the account owner, as well as the popularity of the websites within. Google also uses its own analytics to evaluate just how a website behaves and how the visitors utilize it, for example, with analytics, the information collected may provide insight into a websites performance and how it manages its users, what the bounce rates are etc. This information potentially contributes towards website selection. If a website has a very high bounce rate, Google may record this information from analytics and use this as a ranking factor.

The next product Google will use to collect information is Gmail. Gmail is Google’s mail platform which offers free e-mail addresses and free online document storage, Google will have information on you from your account details and by the information contained within your documentation.
Google is also able to detect if you are connected via a social networking website such as Facebook, Bebo or Myspace. With your Google details these are used against indexed pages of social networking websites to see if you have a profile.

Google will also record searches you have made and will also populate other frequent searches within your jurisdiction to establish commonly search keywords within various regions, for example, Google could monitor the search activity in a region and observe high levels of flu related searches, Google could then use this information to tailor searches more suited to people in the region.

If you decide to use Google maps, then your queries are recorded to see the areas being observed, this data is stored by Google and is not passed onto 3rd parties. Google maps records details of searches and can observe trends in requested location data. This location data is also used to evaluate common interest between observationists and as such means that Google can provide additional images/resources related to the area’s searched.

When searching youtube, your searches and geographic data is recorded, this has recently been used to prevent UK users from accessing thousands of music videos that breach copyright laws. Video data is recorded to monitor popular keyword searches and video popularity. This data is used to deliver targeted ads in some video’s that are watched.

A variety of Google applications may collect and share data dependant on the application, everything from Google Chrome to Google Talk. This information is not usually used to identify you but instead to make your search/application use into statistics that help contribute to other peoples browsing/application use habits. Other goals include the better delivery of targeted sales advertising through PPC and Adsense.
What ever you decide to use it will more then likely create a cookie or collect data from search queries/applications. This information is used to further enhance search results/targeted advertising and also contributes towards better natural search results.

Monthly Attention – Facebook, Yahoo, Google, MySpace

(The total time spent on a domain as a percentage of the total time spent online by all U.S. Internet users, February ‘07 – February ‘09) from compete.com

This is pretty interesting stuff. But what we can see from this data is the sharp fall of Myspace in June 07 and another cliff-like drop exactly a year later in June 08. Myspace however has had more support in the US and therefore longevity. Though time spent drastically reduced. After you have spent time building the look and feel of your page, there wasn’t a hell of a lot more to spend your time on. So was this drop due to the relatively unfriendly usability of the site, or the comparatively single dimension experience?


Saying this however, search data has been strong for Myspace over the last 12 months, Facebook only overtaking them in the first month of this year. As you will see from the trends graph (US only. A worldwide chart shows Facebook dominating MS many months before)

Trends - Facebook takes Myspace at the Last

So search has no affect on the length of time the audience stay on the site.


We’ve all got our own opinions about the qualities of Myspace and Facebook, usability issues and the types of people and behaviour related to each. These ultimately are the reasons why one is succeeding and the other has seen better days. Why one was bought for record amounts by a media mogul and why the other surely will be, and will definitely make the owner a billionaire.


As for Google’s position in this data… well Yahoo has all the web-mail time spent on it, but Google (a few seconds for each search) is fast catching. This time next year, it will be the big G out in front.


Author Sam