Update: Google’s algorithm has spread to all the proxies I have access to. So the research will change accordingly. A shortened version of what I discovered before the changes when examining four different markets in the US can be found in my Inman Column on the new algorithm. Free on March 1st, 2011 and paid subscription required after that time.
Google’s new algorithm change has an effect on more than 10% of search queries. My initial investigation into how the algorithm update has effected real estate searches has yielded a few surprising insights.
I want to start by clearly stating that I have no idea about the inner workings of the new Google “Farmer” algorithm update. This post is meant to provide some observation ideas and specific examples that might be useful for businesses, such as real estate, which rely on search marketing but have so far not been as exciting for the press to write about as, say Demand Media or AOL.
Last night Google began pushing out their latest search ranking algorithm, which is being dubbed the “Farmer” algorithm update. This doesn’t signal a new agricultural focus for Google, it’s about decreasing results of what they consider to be low-quality content.
Anything that Google or any search engine does to increase the relevance and quality of results is good. It’s good for people who search. It’s good for people who make content online. It’s obviously good for Google because then more people use their site and they sell more ads.
Thoughtfaucet is lucky enough to have a couple of exceptionally ambitious apprentices from Champlain College here in Burlington, VT. They both know a lot of useful things, but I’m determined to teach them a few more useful things.
When putting together some of the training materials I realized that maybe other people would like to learn this stuff too. So I asked the apprenti if they would mind doing the training live. And that’s how it comes to pass that we bring you:
Spend a half hour to make your LinkedIn Profile awesomer
Sunday, February 27, 3pm Eastern
It’s free.
The last webinar I held filled up within less than 24 hours. Well, to be honest, the whole last webinar was planned, marketed and delivered in less than 24 hours. But the point is, you’ll want to reserve your space in this so go ahead and do it now.
Me, Brett and Liz will be going over some of the following:
How to use all the basic info fields to help you stand out.
How to craft a good personal mission statement.
Writing a good past experience profile.
Getting recommendations from people you’ve worked with in the past.
Using some of the cool LinkedIn widgets.
Optimizing for LinkedIn search.
Going beyond the profile and using LinkedIn to engage.
Webinar attendees will be invited to follow along and ask questions via the chat channel within GoToWebinar. I think you’ll find some useful bits of information and help step up your game on LinkedIn, the premier business-focused social network out there.
Tonight I got involved in a great online discussion with Derek Overbey, Jeff Turner and Matthew Shadbolt about whether “social” levels the playing field between large organizations and small organizations. In other words, does social media make it easier for small business to compete with large business?
One of my recent “Take Gahlord to Lunch” clients was the Vermont Women’s Business Center. They were in a tough situation with their website. Hackers had managed to destroy their existing website leaving them with no way to update their constituents about upcoming events.
Redesign and development of a website without the benefit of planning for it, both for time and finances, is challenging for any organization–for-profit or non-profit. I was particularly happy to help out.
We made a new website for Vermont Women’s Business Center over the course of two lunch meetings. Here’s how:
At our first lunch, I got a sense of the specific business needs of VWBC: promoting live events and workshops throughout Vermont.
At the end of the lunch we each had a task list. I gave VWBC a specific set of instructions for their tech liaison so that I’d have the access to do the things needed to get them rolling with a new website.
Before our second lunch, I spent a little bit of time doing basic web configuration stuff and doing a basic WordPress install.
Meanwhile, the VWBC did a great job of writing up all the content they needed to have on the site and emailed it to me.
At our second lunch we looked over the content and talked about how it should be organized (aka website architecture).
I taught the VWBC how to enter their content into WordPress so they can now update their own site without having to pay someone every time they add a new event.
Clients make all the difference when it comes to a successful website
Now, not every organization can put together a website in a handful of hours like this. There were some things that Linda Ingold and her staff did that made this possible:
Super-organized web content: VWBC took the assignment of writing out the content for their website very seriously. They did a good job of organizing it ahead of our second lunch so we could really hit the ground running.
Honest assessment of what was most important: VWBC kept the objective of the website as the main focus and didn’t add anything that was extraneous. Even things we might normally think of as “standard” on a website they left off–this results in less work for us all but also a very focused user experience on their website. This is a hard thing to do for many organizations and Linda and her team rocked this.
Focus on function: When you see the website it probably looks familiar because the core code framework is the same as the Thoughtfaucet site. I know from reviewing my analytics that the “plain Thoughtfaucet site” is valued by many visitors for being clean and easy to navigate. The VWBC felt good about spending our time together focusing on the core business objectives and function of the site for now, knowing they can always change the design later.
These three things take a lot of courage and skill on the part of a client. Successful projects only happen when everyone is focused on the business objectives. Vermont Women’s Business Center was and that made their two-lunch website work out well for everyone.
Yesterday Thoughtfaucet hosted a call about Google’s recent decision to drop GoogleBase and, in the process, remove real estate listings from Google Maps. There was a large and eager audience for this event which was put together in less than 24 hours.
Below you will find a link to the audio recording of the “#regoo” conversation about Google Map and Real Estate. Later on I will get a transcript and some other supporting materials up.
I missed the first opening in which I introduced everyone. This recording starts in with Dustin Luther describing what it was like back when Google first started putting pins for real estate on their map product.
If you want to get added to my mailing list for future webinars or events, please fill out the form below.
[contact-form 8 “Live Webinar”]
Transcript of Google, Real Estate, Maps conversation
The “Google removing Real Estate from the Map” has already happened. The audio and a written transcript is posted at Google Maps and Real Estate.
Today Google announced that they’ll be pulling real estate off of the Google Map. A number of things all sort of start to coincide with this–googlebase API disappearing, their CEO switching out, and so on. I figured I’d see if some of my friends wouldn’t mind having a live conversation about this topic.
Google takes real estate off the map
Date: Thursday, January 27, 2011
Time: 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM EST
Cost: Free
What’s great about this crew of panelists is that everyone has some deep experience in a variety of aspects of real estate, data, marketing and technology. So we should be able to really poke at the issues around Google getting out of mapping real estate from a variety of angles.
We’ll talk for a bit and about what meaning this has, if any and maybe take a few questions. Gahlord will try to moderate.
Further reading re: Google removing real estate from the map.
Also, I’ll try to keep a listing of posts that discuss this issue here:
Thoughtfaucet is currently accepting applications to become an apprentice. I’m using the word “apprentice” more in the beginner-craftsman sense than in the TV show sense.
Here’s a bullet-list of details. Application information is below.
You will be doing meaningful work on behalf of Thoughtfaucet and other organizations.
I hope to get a wide variety of age, gender and experience among the applicant pool.
A Thoughtfaucet apprentice is not an intern (though if that’s what you want on your resumé that’s ok).
Students of any discipline are encouraged to apply. I am more interested in how you learn and communicate than in what discipline you are studying.
People who are not students are encouraged to apply. Student mindset is more important than course enrollment.
Thoughtfaucet produces work in a variety of fields and disciplines including strategy, design, animation, programming, analytics, online marketing, coding, writing and education. If you have a particular interest or existing ability, that’s great. If not, that’s great too.
I am seeking a maximum of three apprentices.
Apprentices will be responsible for scheduling their on-site time and meetings — this is a flexible environment.
Applicants who can travel to the Thoughtfaucet studio in Burlington, VT are preferred. However, depending on the course of work it may be possible to work with a remote apprentice.
To apply please send me a link to your LinkedIn profile. This is the only thing I want to see for now. I will let you know when I have reviewed it. If I want to schedule an interview you will receive a request via my scheduling system. If I decline to interview you at this time I will let you know.
Once you begin, your first task will be to learn how to make a mindmap. After you have proficiency in this documentation technique we will explore an individual course of study that benefits you and Thoughtfaucet.
I’m making this tutorial because I’m in the process of removing everything from my Gist account. Not because I’m leaving Gist–not by a long shot. But because I had tried to make Gist do a lot more than it was good at. Since Gist doesn’t have a category feature, I tried to make the tagging feature into one by using underscores and stuff.
This, needless to say, ended up being more overhead than it was worth and added a ton of clutter to my use of Gist. My decision to streamline how I use Gist into a more single-purpose tool instead of a full on social CRM tool is what led me to try to delete my existing tags from Gist.
The lesson learned here is, before loading up Gist with contacts and going crazy with tags, think it through–it isn’t easy to undo or revert things. Figure out exactly how you’re going to use Gist before really configuring it much. Here is Gist’s page on adding tags (they don’t have one for deleting or editing tags, which is why I made this tutorial).
If, like me, you got a little overly-detailed in your use of tagging then you’ll find yourself wanting to get rid of some of the tags. Unfortunately, Gist’s tagging feature isn’t an area of focus for them right now. This means editing and deleting tags is a little bit complicated. That’s why I made this tutorial.
A key piece of information: since there is no screen for managing tags in Gist, the only way to delete tags is to remove tags from every one of your contacts.
This tutorial is a step-by-step walk-through of how to delete a tag in Gist with the minimum of fuss. Well… ok it’s a little fussy, but it’s the minimum of fuss because there isn’t any other way of doing it that I know of.
Another key piece of information: the instructions in this tutorial don’t always work. I haven’t figured out why they work sometimes and don’t others. Some tags really just won’t go away even when they’ve been removed from all of my contacts. Others will go away when following this tutorial.
